MISSION BAY – A recent city proposal to designate three Mission Bay Park properties as surplus land to build a Marina Village hotel got blowback from residents calling it a housing land grab by developers.
Properties involved include Sportsmen’s Seafood and Dana Landing Marina, both with expired leases. The third property is Marina Village, an event venue with a full marina and conference center at 1936 Quivira Way.
On Aug. 5, the Mission Bay Park Committee, which advises San Diego’s Parks and Recreation Board on Mission Bay Park, voted 7-2-1 against the city’s surplus-land proposal following public testimony opposing the proposal.
The city’s express intent to lease or sell the three land parcels – after declaring them as surplus for 15-plus years – drew strong criticism from community members distrusting the city’s motives.
At issue is a requirement under state law that once a property is declared surplus land, priority has to be given first to offering it for bid to affordable housing developers.
At the Aug. 5 Mission Bay Park Committee meeting, attorney Bob Ottilie spoke for many, receiving applause during his speech, noting he was not against commercial development like a hotel, but opposed to new housing on the three Mission Bay parcels.
Speaking after the Mission Bay Park Committee meeting, Rachel Laing, Mayor Todd Gloria’s director of communications, said the public has misread the city’s intent in declaring the three parcels as surplus. She characterized the situation and possible future redevelopment scenarios on the three properties as “complicated.”
Describing the properties in question as “way underperforming” from a financial perspective, Laing noted that Marina Village, whose current lease is set to expire in 2027, is designated in the Mission Bay Master Plan “for a 500-room hotel and conference center.”
Stressing the city unequivocally “doesn’t want” housing on the three Mission Bay properties, Laing pointed out the state requirement that surplus land must first be offered up for low-income affordable housing, making the matter problematic.
She likened the situation to what recently happened with the proposed Civic Center redevelopment downtown.
“We had to make the Civic Center available first for affordable housing under the Surplus Lands Act, and nobody bid on it,” she said. “We had to do good-faith negotiations. It’s the same thing happening here.”
Noting that the city didn’t want dedicated Mission Bay parkland to have to “go through this process of having it declared as surplus,” Laing added, “we asked if we could get an exemption and skip the Surplus Lands Act and were told no.”
As with the Civic Center, Laing said the city considers the prospect of a developer stepping forward to bid on the Mission Bay properties being declared as surplus as a “high hurdle” to be cleared.
“To develop housing on Mission Bay, you’d have to have a City Charter amendment because park land can’t be used for anything else,” Laing said.
“Also, people don’t want to turn public land into private housing development, so you’d have to get California Coastal Commission approval. Those two hurdles alone are next to insurmountable, as a developer would have to have 25% of the units designated as affordable. With profit margins involved, this would not be appealing to housing developers.”
Laing reiterated that the city concurs with the public’s concerns about housing in Mission Bay.
“People are saying, ‘Oh my God, the city wants to build housing in Mission Bay,’” she said. “We don’t believe housing makes sense there, that a housing project would pencil there. We want to fulfill the Mission Bay Park Master Plan.”
Previously delayed a hearing by the City Council, the proposal to designate the three Mission Bay Park properties as surplus land is now expected to be reconsidered by the council sometime in early September following their August recess.
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