UPDATE: 5:40 p.m., July 30, 2018
The San Diego City Council voted Monday to put both the SoccerCity and SDSU West initiatives on the November ballot.
SDSU West backers petitioned to have language appearing to voters in November changed from “may” build to “shall” build a stadium with other uses and development. But the city attorney’s office said the way the initiative is written does not guarantee that. The council voted to keep the original language.
A spokesman for San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott said her office will file appeals to have both initiatives removed from the ballot.
Original story
The San Diego City Council Monday will consider two citizen ballot initiatives to redevelop the Mission Valley stadium site.
The SDSU West proposal, backed by Friends of SDSU, calls for a new 35,000-seat Aztecs football stadium. It also envisions hotels, retail space, a river park and an academic campus to be shared with commercial office tenants.
The competing SoccerCity initiative to develop the Mission Valley site also proposes mixed-use spaces, as well as a 23,500-seat professional soccer stadium that could be expanded to accommodate Aztecs football.
RELATED: Taxpayer Group Says SoccerCity Provides Bigger Tax Benefit To City
Supporters of whichever measure receives more votes in November, provided it cracks majority support, will likely be given an opportunity to negotiate with the city over the land. Both the SDSU West and SoccerCity proposals gathered enough signatures to appear on the November ballot, though they each face a legal challenge ahead of the election.
The City Council voted 5-3 during closed session on Tuesday to back City Attorney Mara Elliott's decision to challenge the measures through an appellate appeal.
"The Soccer City and SDSU West initiatives essentially force the lease or sale of city assets on terms set by the proponents," Elliott said in a statement. "By filing writs with the Fourth District Court of Appeal, the city seeks clarity on whether this unprecedented use of the initiative process is legal."
Elliott sued in May to strike the initiatives from the ballot, but both cases were rejected by separate San Diego Superior Court judges earlier this month.
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