A citizens initiative led by the Chargers could help solve stadium financing problems by reviving opportunities for collateral development of the Mission Valley stadium site, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said last week.
If team officials decide to pursue a stadium in Mission Valley instead of downtown, Goldsmith said an initiative similar to those pursued last year for proposed stadiums in Carson and Inglewood could simplify the environmental challenges posed by adjacent development.
Mayor Kevin Faulconers stadium task force last year estimated selling 75 acres of the 166-acre Qualcomm site for collateral development could generate $225 million for a $1.1 billion stadium.
That could help close funding gaps in any proposed stadium financing plan, which would also be expected to include $300 million from the NFL, $350 million from city and county taxpayers and millions more from personal seat licenses and other revenue streams.
City and county officials abandoned the task forces adjacent development proposal last summer because of environmental concerns and a lack of time for a citizens initiative to alleviate those concerns.
Now that the Chargers have revived stadium efforts in San Diego after the NFLs rejection in January of their proposed Carson stadium in favor of the Rams proposed Inglewood stadium, Goldsmith said the potential for a citizens initiative and collateral development could be revisited.
"There is a way to do it they did it in Carson and another group of lawyers did it in Inglewood, so it certainly could be done in San Diego in pretty much the same way," he said. "It would involve re-zoning, it would involve voter approval of not only a stadium but ancillary development, and it would include bypassing the California Environmental Quality Act if its done right."
Its not clear whether the Chargers would pursue this route, how much revenue could be generated or what shape the collateral development would take.
Previous proposals during the teams long pursuit of a new stadium have included residential developments, retail projects, entertainment districts, a new home for the sports arena or combinations of those ideas.
The teams new stadium point man, Fred Maas, and the teams special counsel, Mark Fabiani, both declined interview requests last week.
A spokesman for Mayor Faulconer said on Friday that hes willing to consider a stadium proposal including collateral development on the city-owned Qualcomm site.
"The mayor is open to having ancillary development as part of an initiative the Chargers propose as long as the overall plan is viable and a fair and responsible deal for taxpayers," said the spokesman, Craig Gustafson. The reason it wasnt included in the city-county proposal released last year is that both the NFL and the Chargers wanted a stadium-only project to meet their requirement to have a ready-to-go plan by the end of 2015 that didnt rely on funding from future development."
The team and its lawyers would need to decide the details of such an initiative by late March in order to begin gathering signatures for an initiative that would appear on the November ballot.
Previous proposals for adding collateral development to a new Mission Valley stadium faced complex environmental approvals because they came prior to a watershed 2014 state Supreme Court ruling.
That ruling said projects approved by citizens initiative can bypass the rigorous environmental review required by the California Environmental Quality Act.
The stadium proposals in Carson and Inglewood were among the first to utilize that opportunity for accelerated approval, and Goldsmith said San Diego and the Chargers now have time to follow suit.
Given the limited time last year for environmental review, keeping it only to the stadium made a lot of sense because there was already a stadium there and a lot of the environmental work had already been done," he said. "It would have been impossible for the scientists to do all the environmental work for peripheral development."
The environmental impact report for a Mission Valley stadium that the city completed last fall would have to be abandoned if collateral development is added to the proposal. But that wont matter if the Chargers bypass CEQA by pursuing a citizens initiative.
Goldsmith said the Supreme Court ruling is so new that its not clear how specific the initiative would have to be about the proposed collateral development, but he said a general outline would almost certainly be necessary.
"We're still in relatively new territory, but I would assume you're going to want to have some parameters of what would be there: no greater than X number of housing units and the square footage that would be set aside for retail and commercial," he said. "I would assume they would have some understanding of what they would want there and I would assume the voters would want to know before they vote yes or no."
Having voters approve rezoning the land and the entitlements needed to build something would ease the approval process for potential developers, making the opportunity more appealing. Those benefits would be in addition to voter approval simplifying environmental approvals.
Tony Manolatos, who was spokesman for the mayors stadium task force until it completed its work last spring, said last week that the groups analysis showed strong demand from developers.
If the Chargers move forward with a Mission Valley proposal, youre going to have people clamoring to buy the extra property, he said.
Goldsmith noted that bypassing CEQA wouldnt eliminate all potential environmental hurdles.
The proposal might still need approval from agencies that enforce the Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act or Toxic Substances Control Act.
For example, Goldsmith said the proposed Carson stadium project needed approval from state officials for remediation work related to it being a former dump.
In addition, there could be strong public opposition to adding collateral development to a new stadium project in already-congested Mission Valley.
That could require any proposal to include money for infrastructure projects, such as widening of nearby roads or building parking garages.
Manolatos said the task force concluded that parking lost to collateral development of the Qualcomm site could be replaced.
Theres a lot of surface parking in Mission Valley close to that site a lot of office towers, he said.
Goldsmith said it was unlikely that all of the revenue generated by collateral development could help finance stadium construction because roughly half the Qualcomm site is owned by the citys Water Department and its ratepayers, not the city.
"There is a fiduciary duty not to treat the water fund unjustly," Goldsmith said.
He stressed that city officials couldnt be involved in drafting the initiative because state law requires it to originate with citizens.
"I can't give them a road map of how to do it because that would be inappropriate," said Goldsmith, adding that he doubted his help would be necessary. "If this is the same team that did the work on the Chargers citizens initiative in Carson, they know what they're doing. I'm sure they'll cover those bases.
