Crude emails reveal nasty side of a California beach city’s crusade to halt growth
A message to officials from the city manager of Del Mar has shown up in some residents’ inboxes. It includes the words “Pray for us.”
It’s a message for local officials and residents of Del Mar, which has been trying to thwart new development on its coastline by imposing tough restrictions on new housing and restaurants.
But city officials say it’s also a request that people join their crusade.
“We’re asking everyone to pray for us because we’re really fighting for our rights — and our rights mean we can protect our environment,” San Diegans for Coastal Access coordinator Jeff Sommers said in a recent interview.
“We’re putting people’s lives in danger, our environment is being endangered, and it’s not right.”
Sommers is one of 16 local residents who have signed the Del Mar city manager’s letter.
Delmar is working to slow the growth of the San Diegans for Coastal Access, a local group that wants the city to reallocate and preserve more of its coastline.
The group wants to have “a minimum 5 percent reduction” in the area’s land use between the shoreline and 10-feet below it by 2030. It also wants to have “all new development between the coast and 10 feet below the mean tide line be limited to a maximum of five additional homes per block.”
The group got off to a rough start when it got permission to hold a festival on a popular beachfront property it wants to develop. The city reversed its position, saying the festival had a “high potential and low probability of adverse impact.”
The group has been fighting to stop the city from enforcing its own rules on development. Some of its members have been arrested in recent years for blocking streets as part of their anti-growth fight.
But the members also have been taking action on the city’s behalf. In July, Sommers and fellow protesters were arrested for sitting on the beach rather than getting arrested.
“We’re trying to keep people who don’t want development off the
