After an initial defeat, backers of the SoccerCity proposal to redevelop the former Qualcomm stadium site are mounting another attack to remove the rival SDSU West initiative from the November ballot.

On Thursday, lawyers representing SoccerCity supporters filed an emergency petition with the state appeals court, arguing once again that the boosters backing SDSU West — Friends of SDSU — misused the San Diego State University name, and, in the process, “confused, misled and deceived San Diegans.”

The appeal argues, as did the initial failed lawsuit, that, by using the SDSU name, Friends of SDSU violated state election law and education code.


SoccerCity and SDSU West each seek to redevelop the city’s Mission Valley stadium site with housing, commercial projects and a public park along the San Diego River. The legality of the proposals, however, was questioned by City Attorney Mara Elliott, who unsuccessfully sued to strike both initiatives from the ballot.

Prior to the city’s suit, SoccerCity backers asked San Diego’s Superior Court in April to order City Clerk Elizabeth Maland to remove the SDSU West plan from the ballot. In June, Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil ruled that the suit’s petitioners — Carrie Taylor and David Dunbar, two registered voters in San Diego — did not have legal standing to seek the rival measure’s removal from the ballot. The judge also said it’s not illegal for supporters of the citizens’ initiative to use names that refer to San Diego State University.

Now, lawyers for SoccerCity argue that the Superior Court got it wrong on both counts.


“This case will decide whether an initiative which was qualified for the City of San Diego ballot under illegal and misleading circumstances will be permitted to remain on the ballot,” the appeal states. “The proponents of the so-called ‘SDSU West Campus Research Center, Stadium and River Park Initiative’ violated state law in their quest to qualify for the ballot and misled voters into believing that the initiative is officially sponsored and supported by San Diego State University. The only remedies for these wrongs is removing the Initiative from the upcoming ballot.”

In a statement, Friends of SDSU said the lawsuit was an example of the group behind SoccerCity — FS Investors — trying to block voter choice.

“We are confident the court’s ruling declaring Friends of SDSU’s use of the San Diego State University name is appropriate and legal will be upheld,” the booster group said.


However, SoccerCity representatives said they expect the appeals court to block the SDSU West proposal from the ballot.

“We look forward to the court deciding whether the voters of San Diego have a right to be truthfully informed about the false promises being peddled by the private developers behind the SDSU West initiative,” the group said in a statement. “They are not above the law, and that is what this appeal is about.”

The appeal is seeking an order ahead of the August deadline for printing the November ballot.


The SDSU West and SoccerCity plans resemble each other in proposing a replacement for the 51-year-old former Qualcomm Stadium — now known as SDCCU Stadium — with housing and commercial development and a public park along the San Diego River in Mission Valley.

They both followed a novel approach to dealing with city-owned land. Instead of waiting for the city to create a master plan for the site, they drafted their own planning and legal documents and succeeded in collecting more than the required 71,634 city voter signatures to put a measure on the ballot. This approach allowed them to short-circuit what would have been a lengthy review process.

The SDSU West initiative proposes the sale of approximately 132 acres of city property to San Diego State University or an SDSU auxiliary organization for development purposes.



Business

phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar

ALSO


San Diego’s new single-family homes are pricey, modern and in short supply

Tijuana condo craze continues in to 2018

Last year’s housing market broke records