After nine days and with only 15,000 ballots left to count, it appears that Measure C has passed by 51%, narrowly clearing the 50%+1 threshold required.
Identical in wording to Measure E in 2020, which received 57% of the vote, we believe the uncertainty over the outcome and lower margin of approval indicates that voters have become more wary of proposals airily claiming to provide “affordable housing.”
Our members knew going in that we were at a disadvantage with both time and money. Although we formed in September and raised less than $500, we are proud of what we were able to accomplish by going door-to-door and holding rallies.
As Donna Frye has quoted before, “The coast is never saved. It is always being saved.”
With this in mind, we want it known that our efforts have not ended with this election but only just begun. We will continue to organize and work with other grassroots groups to protect our coastal areas, and urge those wanting to do the same to join with us.
"Sierra Club believes that urban infill projects should be supported when they follow smart planning principles, consider environmental impacts, provide needed public facilities, including parks and open space, and provide a healthful living environment. Removing the Coastal Height Limit in the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan area, as proposed in Measure C, fails to meet all those criteria.
Measure C, and the massive, proposed development project that the ballot measure intends to allow, does not include a full Environmental Impact analysis that the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) demands.
The Midway-Pacific Highway community has a park deficit of 60%. People need parks and the city’s plan for the Midway community is woefully short on parks.
Midway can be redeveloped without repealing the 30-foot height limit. A good example is Liberty Station that offers many housing units less than 30 ft in height.
While development is currently only planned for the 48.5 acres of the Sports Arena site, the height limit would be eliminated in the entire Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan area which is comprised of 1,324 acres. There is no demonstrated need to lift the height limit in the entire Community Plan area which is 27 times as much land as the Sports Arena site.
Measure C is being used as a sleight of hand to raise the height limit for future development with no environmental analysis.
Vote NO on Measure C"
" For more than six decades, The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint has faithfully reported on news from an African-American perspective and African-American communities of San Diego County, from small church gatherings to major political campaigns. As San Diego’s largest African American publication, our news features have highlighted people and events in a more comprehensive manner, while commentators have argued from different points of view in the lively op-ed pages. The Voice & Viewpoint has grown over the last decade to over 350 newsstands and outlets in convenience stores. Our publication can be found in all 89 zip codes of San Diego and has readership of over 20,000."
"Measure C should be a constructive discussion about affordable housing and redevelopment in the Midway/Sports Arena area. But it is not. Do you trust this Mayor and this City Council? In 1972, the public did not. What has changed today, that makes the public trust them more to protect our community?"
"We know Measure C requires no affordable housing and that not one home is required to be built for working families, veterans or the homeless.
We know that not one acre of park land or public open space is required and nothing is required related to the Climate Action Plan goals or reducing emissions.
We know there is not one word in the Measure C ballot text that requires any of those things because we read it. Yet, the campaign mailers continue with the lies.
So what can we do to help since we are being grossly outspent?
With the election so close and so many people having already voted it’s quite a challenge. I think the best we can do now is to get as many people as we can to vote “no” on Measure C.
I know that it won’t be easy to overcome the huge financial advantage of the Measure C supporters.
I also know that no matter what, we will keep trying to get the word out because that’s what we do."
"What Measure C does is remove the 30-foot, voter-approved height limit to allow for high-rise development in the Midway-Pacific Highway area of the Coastal Zone. That area is approximately 1,324 acres which includes 88 acres of city-owned public land with approximately 48 of those acres located at the Sports Arena site.
Measure C is not about helping the public get more parkland or creating housing for the homeless or the veterans or fixing the infrastructure or reducing the gas emissions to help the air quality in San Diego.
. . .
Nothing else. Just the height exemption. The Measure C proponents can make all the false claims they want because the public will have no way of holding them accountable if Measure C passes."
"For those who aren’t aware: Measure C again proposes removing the Midway-Pacific Highway planning area from the 30-foot Coastal Height Limit Overlay Zone, allowing otherwise unlimited heights for all new buildings in this area. We are being told that it is necessary in order to build the affordable housing called for to redevelop the Sports Arena site.
Yet the Sports Arena site is 48 acres; and as city property any redevelopment is required to contain no less than 25% affordable units. But once this is pointed out, proponents pivot to saying it’s necessary in order to build a new Sports Arena. So why doesn’t Measure C focus on that particular site exception, rather than remove protection for the entire 1,324 acres in the Midway planning area?
Because San Diegans are repeatedly being sold the sizzle while developers get the steak.
. . .
We need serious solutions from serious leaders, not shiny renderings in place of actual people. Please vote ‘no’ on Measure C."
Join other San Diegans in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 30-foot Coastal Height Limit. In November of 1972, 63% of voters throughout San Diego voted to pass the Citizens’ Initiative known as Prop D (People’s Ordinance O-10960).
Beginning in early October, a group of beach residents and supporters who formed Keep The Coast 30 will carry out a series of celebrations and press conferences in San Diego’s beach and coastal areas to bring the message of this historic celebration to our fellow residents.