Fair Board Kills Fairgrounds Housing Effort

The Del Mar Fairgrounds Board of Directors voted 5-3 this afternoon to terminate the exclusive negotiating rights agreement with the City of Del Mar to explore sites for affordable housing on the Fairgrounds property. This vote abruptly ends 10 years of negotiations – with more than $1 million in grant funding from SANDAG invested in studies to further the process to site 61 affordable units on fairgrounds property.

The supreme irony is that the fair board cited concerns about the likelihood of Del Mar getting an agreement with the City of San Diego to annex the property at the Fairgrounds’ Surf and Turf RV site, located east of Jimmy Durante Boulevard in San Diego, when at their previous meeting, they had identified the RV site as the only acceptable site for housing at the fairgrounds, pulling the plug on four Fairgrounds sites within the City of Del Mar. This “concern” was cited as the basis for ending the negotiations prematurely, without giving Del Mar a reasonable opportunity to pursue an annexation agreement with the City of San Diego.

Directors Blair, Barkett, and Schenk voted to continue negotiations. Directors DeBerry, Mead, Miyahara, Morales-Roth, and Nejabat voted no. Director Arabo recused himself because of a potential conflict of interest related to allegations referred for investigation.

The termination of the Fairgrounds negotiations will trigger a “contingency” provision in the City of Del Mar’s 6th Cycle Housing Element requiring an upzoning of North Bluff and possibly South Bluff property for affordable housing.