DEL MAR — The Del Mar City Council adopted a resolution on Monday in support of the proposed Our Neighborhood Voices state ballot initiative, joining other cities that aim to restore local control over housing development and land use.
Council members approved the resolution in a 3-0 vote, with Councilmember Dan Quirk absent, formalizing the city’s support for the initiative to be placed on the 2026 ballot. It has been endorsed by over 40 cities throughout the state, including the North County cities of San Marcos, Oceanside and Encinitas.
While state statutes currently supersede local laws regarding land use planning and zoning, the initiative aims to amend the state constitution so that local housing laws would take precedence.
The initiative has gained traction in response to the slew of approximately 450 new housing laws passed in the state over the past eight years, particularly those focused on increasing density, such as SB 9 and laws limiting local control like SB 330.
Councilmember Tracy Martinez said the state has implemented a one-size-fits-all model that does not work for Del Mar and many other coastal communities. Many of the laws also conflict with other state regulations under the Coastal Act.
“By signing this, we say we’d like local control,” Martinez said. “I think it’s really important that local governments get their power back, and not an overreach by Sacramento.”
Martinez emphasized that she and Mayor Terry Gaasterland support the development of affordable housing but that current state laws offer few incentives or requirements for developers to produce low-income housing.
In the end, it’s developers that benefit from these laws, they said.
“We do believe in affordable housing, so I don’t want that to be misunderstood by anybody. But, we also know what’s happening now is not working. We’re not getting more affordable housing; we’re getting more high luxury apartments that are raising the price of all rents, because that becomes the new norm,” Martinez said.
Gaasterland and Martinez also specifically expressed their frustration with the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) process, which allocates housing units that municipalities are required to produce during a specific Housing Element period.
The most recent RHNA process analyzed job data to help determine the number of needed housing units in local municipalities, with SANDAG designating 163 units for the city of Del Mar to produce by 2029.
However, the city determined last year that the city’s job data was largely overinflated, as around half of the 4,484 jobs included in the calculation were for part-time or seasonal employees of the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
“It’s an arbitrary number depending on transient jobs at the summer fair,” said Gaasterland.
The ballot initiative is sponsored by the nonprofit Our Neighborhood Voices. The organization’s website states that it will need 874,641 valid petition signatures from registered California voters for the measure to appear on the ballot.
