How a San Diego lawmaker wants to keep homebuilding out of Mission Bay Park

When San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria last year asked the City Council to declare three commercial properties within Mission Bay Park as surplus land in order to negotiate new leases, it did not go over well.

The recommendation, based on the requirements of state law, alarmed council members and environmentalists concerned the designation could pave the way for housing and other development on the cherished waterfront.

And it was resisted even after Gloria promised that a developer’s unsolicited effort to build 900 homes there would never be approved.

By the fall, city officials had dropped the surplus-land effort and decided instead to pursue exemptions with the help of state housing officials and lawmakers.

Now Assemblymember Chris Ward, a San Diego Democrat who previously served on the City Council, has introduced a bill that would Read Entire Article