Commentary – Rail Realignment: Del Mar as Lead Agency?
- Dwight Worden | Seaview Avenue
On June 16, the City Council approved a letter commenting on SANDAG’s Notice of Preparation (NOP), which kicks off the environmental review process for the rail realignment project. Surprisingly, the City for the first time argued that the City of Del Mar, not SANDAG, should be the “lead agency” for the CEQA environmental review for this project. That claim won praise from many Del Mar residents, but as someone who litigated cases on this issue, it strikes me as a long shot. It could also have unintended consequences on Del Mar’s Fairgrounds housing plan.
After working with Del Mar on the “value analysis” process and on an improved NOP, SANDAG is likely to see this challenge to its lead agency status as a late blow and an unwarranted distraction.
Del Mar’s letter states, for example, that “The City as a Lead Agency would explore solutions that avoid all impacts to the City and more directly connect to the I-5 corridor. Alternatives that transit through the City are not acceptable.” This reads like code language for a fairgrounds alignment. It dismisses all options “that transit through” Del Mar before any environmental studies are done.
This position may put the fairgrounds housing negotiations at risk, at a time when the Fairgrounds board already has a standing action item on its agenda to allow it to quickly pause or terminate housing negotiations with Del Mar under the Agreement signed in 2024.
A few questions worth asking about this lead agency role:
- Does Del Mar think it can access SANDAG’s funding to pay for its work as the lead agency? If not, how can Del Mar fund such a substantial undertaking?
- Can Del Mar carry out the lead agency role even if it gets the funding? Staffing for this role would be very significant, the lead agency role is complex, and Del Mar has never served as lead agency for a project like this.
- As lead agency, is Del Mar prepared to defend all legal challenges to the CEQA process? Would those significant expenses have to be borne by Del Mar?
Del Mar’s lead agency claim feels like when Del Mar tried to buy the fairgrounds and learned there is risk in taking a big swing that misses. As in that case Del Mar may regret not coordinating with Solana Beach and the Fairgrounds.
It’s true Del Mar is profoundly impacted by the realignment project. But the project is more than just a tunnel—it’s a key component of interstate passenger and freight rail travel and the entire LOSSAN corridor. I don’t see how Del Mar qualifies as lead agency on that basis. If the lead agency claim is a strategy to get leverage, it’s a claim with high risk.
In the end, we need a majority of the SANDAG Board to vote for our preferred alignment. How does challenging SANDAG’s lead agency status this late in the process further that objective?
As always, these are my opinions, but this is how I see it.