Del Mar responds to Seaside Ridge demand for decision on application

Last month, a San Diego Superior Court judge dismissed a petition that would have allowed a 259-unit residential project to move forward on Del Mar’s north bluff property. The ruling said that the project applicant has to exhaust all “administrative remedies” with the city, including an appeal to the City Council, before the court could decide on the legality of the project.

The court petition, filed in 2024, came after city planners deemed multiple applications for the project, known as Seaside Ridge, incomplete because it didn’t have the necessary documents to pursue a zoning change on the property.

On July 10, attorneys representing property owner Carol Lazier sent a letter to the city demanding a City Council appeal or project approvals within 60 days.

On July 18, Del Mar’s city attorney said the letter “does nothing to advance the application process” because the application materials to initiate a rezone still haven’t been submitted.

“As you are aware,” City Attorney Ralph Hicks said in a July 18 response, “the City has previously requested these materials in four separate incomplete application letters from April 2023 to December 2023. Accordingly, the only ‘stalemate’ is the in-action on the part of the Applicant.”

The letter continues, “Counsel assumes that providing false and misleading information to the press will somehow force the City in approving the Seaside Ridge project without needing to comply with state housing law and the California Coastal Act.”

The Seaside Ridge application argues that the application should be eligible to proceed under the Builder’s Remedy, a state law that allows for streamlined approvals when an application is submitted while a city does not have a state-certified housing element. Del Mar’s housing element, which lays out the city’s plan to accommodate 175 new housing units, was approved by the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development about two months after the first Seaside Ridge application.

“The fundamental flaw in the Applicant’s legal posture is that the “Builder’s Remedy” applies and the Coastal Act does not,” the city’s letter said. “Neither is the case. Instead of recognizing this fact, counsel has now submitted five legal treatises on housing laws which only serve to delay the application process.”

Seaside Ridge spokesperson Darren Pudgil said in a statement that the city’s letter “underscores their belief that state housing law should be applied differently in their city.”

“Unfortunately, the city is talking out of both sides of its mouth — they are trying to convince everyone that they are working hard to comply with California’s housing laws while earlier this month the city council voted to support an initiative that rolls back these very laws, which Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta have championed,” Pudgil said. “What we want is simple — no more delays. The city needs to either deem our application complete or allow us to appeal it directly to the city council.”