Developers of the Midway Rising project insist their plans are still legal, even after a court reinstated the 30-foot building height limit for the neighborhood.
City leaders may be looking to change state law to push the project forward.
The argument
Midway Rising’s leaders, representing investor and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, insisted they did not need voters to approve the height limit exception.
Since they were building affordable housing, they argued that state law already allowed them to go higher than 30 feet.
In his State of the City speech this month, Mayor Todd Gloria said the project would go forward.
“Public land should serve the public,” Gloria said. “And right now, serving the public means building more homes. So this spring I will bring this project forward for public hearings and a vote from the city council.”
Those hearings would cover the city’s lease deal with the developers and the approval of an environmental impact report. But crucially, the mayor and city attorney have never said they agreed with developers that the current state law supports their project.
What could happen next
The city is in discussions with state lawmakers about whether they could pass a law specifically exempting the project from the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.
CEQA lawsuits can effectively end projects. But Rams owner Stan Kroenke has a record of avoiding them.
The city may be hoping for what Kroenke got when he built SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. That venue is where the Los Angeles Chargers now play, and it remains the most expensive stadium ever built.
To make sure it had no trouble getting approved, state lawmakers exempted the SoFi project from CEQA. They’ve done that for other stadiums and arenas, too.
San Diego leaders are hoping they’ll do it for Midway Rising. But the developers don’t necessarily want to wait.
