'A monumental step forward': Governor clears path for Chula Vista's …

Thanks to legislation signed this week by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the city of Chula Vista will be able to use its 383-acre University and Innovation District for that purpose rather than selling the property to developers for housing.
Assembly Bill 129 exempts the city from the state’s Surplus Land Act, which requires local governments to offer excess land for sale or lease to affordable housing developers first before allowing other uses. The legislation was brokered by two Democratic lawmakers from San Diego, Assemblymember David Alvarez and Sen. Steve Padilla.
Leaders of San Diego County’s second-largest city said Wednesday the move puts the city closer to realizing its 30-year-old dream of building a hotspot for education and business.
“This project represents a monumental step forward towards addressing a wide array of inequities that South Bay residents face daily,” said Padilla, a former Chula Vista mayor and council member. “Universities offer incredible economic opportunities for the surrounding communities in addition to the increased capacity and access they provide to higher education. This is an investment in the future of this region.”
Chula Vista sought an exemption for the site, located near State Route 125 and the Otay Ranch Town Center, because it envisions having universities serving at least 20,000 students and research and development companies that would collectively employ about 8,000 people. The city maintained that it acquired the land through agreements from housing builders that limited the type of developments that could be built on-site.
A state agency last year told the city that the land did not qualify for exemptions. It said the restrictions did not explicitly prohibit housing and that because Chula Vista was party to the agreements, the city had imposed those restrictions on itself.
Chula Vista found itself in a tough position.
So the city enlisted the help of Alvarez, whose 80^th District includes Chula Vista, to be excluded from the Surplus Land Act.
Under the bill, Chula Vista will have to restrict at least 25 percent of the housing planned on-site to lower-income households. The condition was added by the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development.
Steve Russell, president and CEO of the San Diego Housing Federation, had previously raised concerns that without an affordable housing component, the university and innovation district could actually hinder access to higher education for many students. The Federation had pushed to require the district to include some units dedicated to lower-income households.
“Chula Vista won’t just have an innovation district, but one that includes the people who work there, who can afford to live there,” he said. “The high-end engineers are going to be fine. They’re going to be able to afford housing, but there are folks who maintain those buildings, who work the desks, who are students. In the case of Chula Vista, many of whom do not have the resources and are being priced out of housing.”
Alvarez and Padilla also argued that Chula Vista is building significant housing, including affordable housing.
Last year, the city built 979 units or 10 percent of everything built in the county. From 2013 to 2020, Chula Vista reported a total of 1,008 new affordable units, said Stacey Kurz, director of the city’s Dept. of Housing and Homeless Services.
Chula Vista’s plea for an exemption left lawmakers pondering if they should revisit provisions of the Surplus Land Act, especially because it has seen “a parade of bills” seeking similar exemptions.
With state approval, city officials said they can now focus on resuming negotiations with HomeFed Corp., the master developer Chula Vista wants to implement its university and innovation district. The corporation also owns property adjacent to the university land.
“After decades of planning and work to secure 383 acres, we are now able to continue negotiations that will advance the University-Innovation District,” Mayor John McCann said in a statement.
In December, the city and HomeFed entered into a negotiating agreement. Chula Vista wants HomeFed to prepare the land so that the city has it in a developable condition. It wants the overall work to be completed in four to six phases of between 50 to 100 acres each.
“As a neighbor, we have hoped for years to support their efforts in building out their property, but held off on negotiations as they pursued efforts to resolve surplus land act requirements,” Hale Richardson, vice president of HomeFed, said in a statement. “Now that that’s addressed, we look forward to getting started.”
Negotiations could continue through October, according to the terms of the agreement.
Meanwhile, the city and Southwestern Community College, the only public institution of higher education in Chula Vista, are working to identify the academic programming needed to attract a university locally.
“What we’re looking at is conducting an academic programs study,” said Zaneta Encarnacion, chief of staff to the college’s superintendent. “So, looking at not just university recruitment through a land-use lens, but really looking at, what are the jobs that our region is going to need? Then looking at what degrees are needed by our residents.”
The institutions that offer those programs, but need more space to accept more students would be targeted, she added.
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