But, and this is key, the plan’s environmental analysis did not specifically study buildings over 30 feet.īacal focused on the potential visual impacts of Measure E in her tentative ruling:
#Ut san diego tribune update
The Update was approved in 2018 and allowed for major land-use changes of thousands of new housing units and a population boom of 23,660 people. So, at the heart of the case is whether city planners studied the environmental impacts of buildings higher than 30 feet when they prepared the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan Update. This court challenge has stalled the height change from going into effect. In August 2020, the group filed a petition for a writ of mandate. Yet, Save Our Access, a group of environmentalists and social activists contended the city failed to study the environmental impacts of Measure E, as required by the California Environmental Quality Act. The vote seemed to have paved the road for buildings taller than 30 feet in the 1300 acre site, and especially for the 39-acre Sports Arena redevelopment land owned by the city. In effect and by design, if implemented, the 30-foot height limit in the area would be removed.Ĭity-wide, voters approved Measure E although voters in the Midway area did not. Measure E was an ordinance that changed the definition of the coastal zone in the city’s municipal code, as defined by the people-driven Proposition D in 1972, to exclude what’s known as the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan area. This ruling is the latest bump in the road for the city in its drive to turn the Midway District into an entertainment and residential paradise.Īs a reminder, Councilwoman Jen Campbell successfully convinced her colleagues to place “Measure E” on the November 2020 ballot. She also said, “I should be issuing the ruling very shortly.” And, apparently, Judge Bacal did not express any change in her position but did say she’d take the city’s rebuttal under submission. Every subject area has been analyzed with the assumption that the height limit did not exist.”
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“We analyzed land use on a level that assumed full build-out (of the community plan update. Deputy City Attorney Benjamin Syz contended that the 2018 EIR sufficiently covered any of the environmental implications of Measure E, such as greenhouse gas emissions, traffic and air quality in the plan’s zoning changes, which allow for increased density.
The city rebutted her tentative ruling in court Friday. Judge Bacal ruled that the City of San Diego improperly placed the measure on the November 2020 ballot because the city failed to study the environmental impacts of buildings taller than 30-feet, as required by the California Environmental Quality Act. Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal agreed with petitioner Save Our Access in her tentative ruling that the city should be barred from implementing Measure E.