DEL MAR — Studies for a potential affordable housing development at the Del Mar Fairgrounds are progressing, despite ongoing debates among Fairgrounds board members that have previously put these conversations at risk.
On Dec. 1, the Del Mar City Council commissioned updated architectural and financial feasibility studies related to affordable housing at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, including the study of a new potential site south of the east stable gate.
Del Mar and the 22nd District Agricultural Association, the state organization that governs the Fairgrounds, have been in discussions for years about constructing 61 affordable units on Fairgrounds property to help the city meet its affordable housing requirements in its 6th Cycle Housing Element.
Back in 2022 and 2023, consultants Keyser Marston Associates (KMA) and Stephen Dalton Architects (SDA) completed feasibility studies for two potential housing sites on the Fairgrounds — one at the east main stable gate at the corner of Jimmy Durante Boulevard and Via de la Valle, and one adjacent to the Del Mar Fire Department site just north of the San Dieguito Lagoon bridge.
The Del Mar City Council approved agreements with SDA and KMA to update studies for those two sites, and to complete a study for a new third site south of the east stable gate. The item was approved as part of the consent calendar on Dec. 1 and was not discussed.
Updated studies will analyze senior and family housing options of various sizes and affordability levels, as well as potential funding sources and financing options.
The newly identified site south of the east stable gate was proposed by Harris & Associates, a consultant for the Fairgrounds, in their Housing Sites Assessment completed in November. This assessment evaluated five potential housing sites on the property, including the three previously mentioned in Del Mar and two in the City of San Diego.
This assessment and other studies are being conducted under an exclusive negotiating rights agreement (ENRA) entered into by the city and Fairgrounds in early 2024 and are funded through Housing Acceleration Program funds.
Del Mar is facing state-imposed deadlines for producing housing on the Fairgrounds, and is hoping these updated studies will move things along “in accordance with the ENRA objective to identify a conceptual development program and mutually agree on a location for affordable housing on District property,” per a staff report.
The results are expected to be shared with the City Council and Fairgrounds by June 2026, the city said. After that, the city hopes to negotiate the terms and conditions of a ground lease to prepare for the construction of affordable housing on the property by June 2031.
The state Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) originally set an Oct. 2025 deadline for the city and Fairgrounds to approve a ground lease in a letter last year. With that date now past, HCD representatives said they were in touch with the city and determining next steps as of mid-November.
There have been multiple bumps in the road since the adoption of the ENRA with the Fairgrounds. In February, the 22nd DAA board paused housing talks for a month after Del Mar Mayor Terry Gaasterland publicly shared support for a proposed rail realignment route that would be detrimental to the Fairgrounds.
Board members voted to resume talks with the city the following month, but with the caveat that the board would regularly revisit whether to continue the exclusive negotiating rights agreement. Some board members, particularly Mark Arabo, have repeatedly advocated pausing negotiations.
In October, Arabo requested that the Fairgrounds bring back proposed amendments to the ENRA to make it more favorable to the Fairgrounds. At a Nov. 18 board meeting, he advocated pausing talks again, but the board ultimately chose to continue engaging with the city in the site study.
However, board members said they would like more updates from staff on the status of negotiations with the city, particularly the specific sites under consideration for housing construction.
“How do we request if sites have been even identified to study? I think the board should see that immediately,” Arabo said on Nov. 18. “Because they [the city] might pick sites or we [the Fairgrounds] might pick sites out that are total nonstarters for the board.”
Fairgrounds CEO Carlene Moore assured the board that site studies are underway and will be presented in the coming months. She also noted that the board will make the final decision on which sites are suitable for potential housing.
“In March, we will have the result of these seven or eight reports … with regard to, ‘can this facility, can this property hold affordable housing, where potentially could it be built?” Moore said.
The Fairgrounds board also said they would like to engage with the city of San Diego to explore placing affordable housing on portions of the Fairgrounds property within its city limits.
Gaasterland noted at the City Council’s Dec. 1 meeting that the city’s own studies are already assessing conditions at other parts of the Fairgrounds. These affordable housing studies of the town and Fairgrounds are being completed with Housing Acceleration Program (HAP) grant funds.
“It was very important to be able to point out … that our studies through our consultants, of feasibility of where housing could go, include two parcels that are east of Jimmy Durante Boulevard, that the Fairgrounds staff had asked for to be included,” Gaasterland said.
