Fairgrounds Kill Del Mar Housing Deal

Media
4 minutes ago
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Horses on the track at Del Mar Fairgrounds

The board that runs the Del Mar Fairgrounds has put a stake through the heart of an already ailing deal to build affordable housing on a portion of Fairgrounds property.

The board voted 5-3 on Tuesday to terminate an exclusive negotiating agreement it signed in 2024 with the city of Del Mar to locate part of an affordable housing project on Fairgrounds land currently occupied by an RV park.

Board members cited economic and political uncertainties as reasons they voted to terminate the agreement.

Even before the vote, the housing deal’s future appeared uncertain.

Fairgrounds and Del Mar officials have sparred repeatedly over the project, while wider debates over housing loom in the background.

Recently, the City Council held a hastily arranged meeting to demand an investigation into California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a member of the Fairgrounds board.

Councilmembers wanted to know whether the two officials were biased against the Fairgrounds project because of ties to the developer of a rival project.

Board members voting to kill the deal cited what they called “animosity” surrounding the project. In what was perhaps the discussion’s greatest understatement, one board member called project negotiations “messy.”

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