Midway Rising Ground Lease Takes Center Stage at Closed-Session Council Meeting
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The San Diego City Council convenes a special session Tuesday with a meeting structure that carries significant implications for one of the city's most contested redevelopment projects. Closed session begins at 10 a.m. at City Hall, 202 C Street, with public legislative business and a Housing Authority meeting opening at 2 p.m. The headline closed-session item concerns price and payment terms for potential long-term ground leases tied to the Midway Rising redevelopment.
The project's path has been turbulent. The Council repealed the original Measure C ballot measure under a court order in late August. The site sits in a coastal zone subject to California Coastal Commission jurisdiction, and State Senator Akilah Weber Pierson has been positioning to potentially pursue a legislative maneuver to exempt it from standard CEQA review. Tuesday's closed-session discussion centers on what the city would actually pay — or receive — for long-term ground leases if the project moves forward, terms that are foundational to whether the redevelopment's economics work for the city.
The institutional backdrop matters. A City Auditor investigation earlier this month found a 35-year deal that transferred control of more than a dozen acres of public property to a tax-exempt entity for fifty dollars per month. Golf course leases have drawn scrutiny for the same structural problem — private operators generating $34 million in gross revenue while the city collects $3.5 million in rent across eight courses covering more than 800 public acres. When the Council enters closed session on Midway Rising lease pricing, it does so against a documented pattern of undervaluing its land assets in long-term deals. Public testimony is expected at the morning session; no Council vote on a final Midway Rising deal is on Tuesday's agenda.
The afternoon public session includes several notable items. The City will receive its FY 2026 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report on federal housing programs — covering Community Development Block Grants, HOME funding, and Emergency Solutions Grants for the year ending June 30, 2026 — a performance accountability document that offers a public accounting of how federal housing dollars were deployed. A proposed update to Council Policy 000-10 would allow limited flexibility to display the Progress Pride Flag or Juneteenth Flag during a meeting where a related proclamation is being presented, even if that falls before the designated commemorative month window.
Recent Council actions provide context for Tuesday's session. The unanimous adoption of a working definition of Islamophobia on September 15th prompted Councilmember Kent Lee to call it 'the bare minimum,' with other members framing it as a starting point. The amended redevelopment agreement for 107 Ash Street — the former city office building being converted to affordable housing — extended the ground lease from 60 to 65 years, increased total units from 250 to 252 with 249 serving households at 30 to 80 percent of area median income, and shifted the interest structure from 4 percent simple to 5 percent compound, a change the city characterizes as more favorable to its financial position. The Council also unanimously called on the Governor and Legislature to restore local authority over autonomous passenger vehicles and urged the Airport Authority to prohibit driverless operations at San Diego International Airport.