Aaaaaand... we're back. Did you miss us?

Wowzers! Next week is jam-packed with legislative action -- two loaded Council meetings on Monday and Tuesday, and three committee meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. You ready?

We'll preview the committee meetings in a separate post. This one is all about the Council meetings. It's long and dense. Scroll, skim, find what interests you. Or read the whole thing, but please pace yourself. And hydrate!

For background on the agenda items mentioned here, click on the agenda, then click on the item and find the staff report and supporting documents over on the right. Committee meetings take place on the 12th floor of City Hall, 202 C St., Downtown. You can watch them on Channel 24 on Spectrum and Cox cable, or stream them on CityTV.

City Council -- Monday, March 9

The Council will kick off its Monday agenda with an update on negotiations between the City and San Diego State University (SDSU) surrounding the redevelopment of the stadium site where a professional football team used to play its home games -- a project once known as SDSU West and now known as SDSU Mission Valley.

A reminder: Voters in 2018 authorized the City to sell 132 acres of land to SDSU, whose leaders envisioned a satellite campus, sports stadium, and other amenities. The project includes roughly 86 acres of parks, recreation, and open space, including a 34-acre River Park; about 1.6 million square feet of education, research, entrepreneurial, and technology program space; a 35,000-capacity stadium (and demolition of the existing stadium); roughly 4,600 homes and 400 hotel rooms; some 95,000 square feet of retail space; and improvements to the Green Line Stadium Trolley Station and accommodation of the planned north-south Purple Line between Kearny Mesa and San Ysidro.

When we last visited this story, on Jan. 27, the City Council was providing vast quantities of policy input for the City Attorney's office to add to a draft Purchase and Sale Agreement (PSA) that City and SDSU officials are negotiating. The City handed a revised 50-page PSA over to SDSU, and then SDSU returned a redlined version of it and discussed with City negotiators their objections to various provisions contained in some of the 30-plus attachments to the PSA. Beginning on Feb. 13, negotiators have been meeting regularly to hash out disagreements. On Feb. 28, the City Attorney Mara Elliott released a memo that provides an update on the status of negotiations.

Speaking of big projects, the Council will consider approving a proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the City of San Diego, the Port of San Diego, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, and the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) regarding new transportation connectivity around San Diego International Airport.

Leading us to this moment is a confluence of factors -- a much-needed overhaul of the airport's Terminal 1 and a recent overhaul of how SANDAG is approaching the future of regional transportation (so that we can meet state climate mandates). The MOU lays out how the City, the Port, the Airport Authority, and SANDAG will link arms and figure out together how people will get to and from the airport and move around in the general vicinity.

The MOU does NOT commit to a potential project that has been gaining some momentum -- redeveloping what's known as the NAVWAR site to include a central hub for train, trolley, and bus routes that would also provide a direct connection to the airport. The Navy (which owns the land), SANDAG, and the City have signed an exclusive agreement to explore that project. The site is just west of Interstate 5 and Mission Hills, just east of the Midway district, and north of the airport.

Each of the other three partners has already approved the MOU.

Moving on down to a smaller-scale project, the Council on Monday will be asked to consider overruling an Airport Authority determination that the proposed 4th Avenue Apartments development is inconsistent with the Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan (ALUCP) a document that, as the title suggests, promotes development around the airport that is compatible with the airport.

The project, proposed for a vacant chunk of land on the west side of Fourth Avenue in Bankers Hill, between Laurel and Kalmia streets, includes 36 apartments, four of which will be set aside for renters with very low incomes, and a 1,174-square-foot retail suite. The ALUCP sets 22 units as the maximum allowable density on the property. Rather than voluntarily downsize the project, the developer is staying the course and asking the City Council to overrule the Airport Authority, which is allowed under the California Public Utilities Code. The rules say the Council must vote during two separate hearings to overrule, both of which require a two-thirds majority (six of nine members).

The one other discussion item on the agenda is the Fiscal Year 2020 Mid-Year Budget Monitoring Report. Every year at this time, the city's Department of Finance looks at five months of actual budget activity from the current fiscal year (which started last July 1) and compares it with projections, and also predicts how many dollars will come in and how many will go out for the remainder of the fiscal year. It's also a time to move money around in the budget to meet current needs. Bottom line: The City has taken in $12.6 million more than expected. This is partially offset by a $6.8-million increase in expenditures. Find a summary of these revenues and expenditures on Pages 3 and 4 of the report. If you're a glutton for punishment, read further into the report to get deeper in the weeds. Page 45 is where you go if you want to see the recommendations for moving dollars this way and that.

The Department of Finance is overseen by the Mayor, and so this report is his product. The Independent Budget Analyst, who works for the City Council, will provide this assessment of the report from outside the Mayor's hierarchy.

Monday's meeting begins at 2 p.m.

City Council -- Tuesday, March 10

The ongoing conversation surrounding creating denser housing opportunities along transit corridors will be localized in Clairemont Mesa on Tuesday, as the agenda includes a proposal to rezone the parcel of land at 5255 Mt. Etna Drive, half a block west of Genesee Avenue and a block north of Balboa Avenue. There right now is a former crime lab run by the County of San Diego. The County has determined that the best use of the land going forward is affordable housing. The issue is that the property is zoned for commercial or community center use; changes to community, citywide, coastal planning documents are required for the project to move forward.

The project envisioned would be consistent with the City of Villages strategy contained in the city's General Plan. That means it would integrate a mix of housing and commercial space close to transit. If the Council agrees to everything it's being asked to approve, a maximum of 404 homes could be sited there. The building height limit would rise from 30 feet to 70 feet.

When the matter came before the Clairemont Mesa Community Planning Group, members voted 10-zip, with one abstention, to recommend denial of the project, citing concerns about density and building height. Conversely, the city Planning Commission voted 5-nothing to recommend approval.

Much less controversial will be an informational item on the 2020 U.S. Census. On Tuesday, the United Way of San Diego County will fill the Council in on its efforts to educate the public on the importance of getting a complete count of everyone living in the region. Last year, the state granted $1.56 million to the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) to coordinate education and outreach efforts with local cities and interested community organizations. The City of San Diego then chose the United Way to receive the city's portion of the funding and conduct the outreach on its behalf. The United Way is leading Count Me 2020, a coalition of more than 150 community groups in San Diego and Imperial counties.

The results of the Census determine how $1.5 trillion in federal funding will be divvied up among the states, as well as how many seats in Congress each state gets. At stake for California is hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding for vital public services and programs, not to mention fair representation on Congress. According to Count Me 2020, every person who gets counted brings $1,250 to California. The main thrust is get out into the communities with populations that are traditionally difficult to count and stress the need for everyone to fill out their Census questionnaire.

Meanwhile... from the office of City Councilmember Jennifer Campbell comes a resolution to declare a climate emergency and affirm San Diego's commitment to helping reverse global warming. The resolution specifically commits San Diego “to work and partner with residents, businesses, and community groups to educate our community about the climate crisis, and to work to catalyze a just transition and a climate emergency mobilization effort at the local, state, national and global levels, to provide maximum protection to our residents.”

The Council will also review the city's 2020 State and Federal Legislative Platform. Prepared by the Mayor's government affairs team, the legislative platform serves as a blueprint for how the city will react to state and federal policy proposals and advance its goals in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. Its guiding principles are:

• Preserving Local Control
• Promoting Fiscal Stability
• Supporting Funding Opportunities

And its specifics are broken down into categories:

• Homelessness, Housing Affordability & Neighborhood Services
• Infrastructure, Water Reliability, & the Environment
• Jobs & the Economy
• Open Government & City Funding
• Public Safety
• Veterans Affairs
• Workforce Development & Youth Opportunity

And finally, we have two items courtesy of our good friends in Debt Management -- and PLEASE DON'T MAKE US EXPLAIN THESE! [Insert GIF of a whining child.]

Seriously, look:

• Authorization for the Convention Center Expansion Financing Authority (CCEFA) Lease Revenue Refunding Bonds, Series 2020A Preliminary Official Statement (POS) and Bond Purchase Agreement (BPA)
• Authorization for the Public Facilities Financing Authority of the City of San Diego Lease Revenue Refunding Bonds, Series 2020A (Series 2012A and 2013A Refunding) Preliminary Official Statement (POS)

OK, OK. All we're going to say here is that these items are basically just refinancing General Fund debt, to lock in a lower interest rate and save the city money. The Council in January approved the sale of these bonds. This step is approving the documents that go out to investors before the bonds hit the market. Alright, sorry for all the whining and moaning -- that wasn't so bad.

Well, that's it, other than a bunch of noncontroversial items on the consent agenda and eight (!) proclamations. The meeting begins at 10 a.m., with the items detailed above most likely being discussed starting at 2 p.m., after the lunch break.

Stay tuned for a preview of next week's committee meetings.

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