Lawsuit aims to block San Diego's proposed homeless shelter by the airport

A real estate developer is suing to block San Diego from creating a shelter by the airport, arguing that a decades-old agreement between the city and federal government prohibits homeless services at the H Barracks site.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in San Diego Superior Court by McMillin-NTC, a limited liability company and an offshoot of Corky McMillin Cos. which remade the local Naval Training Center into the business and cultural hub known as Liberty Station.

McMillin believes plans to use the empty lot as a place for hundreds of homeless people to sleep imperils a new hotel.

“The H-Barracks site cannot be legally used for homeless parking, homeless sheltering, or homeless services,” the lawsuit said. Those additions “will have adverse impacts on the existing hotels on the nearby Liberty Station property and on the third hotel to be built by McMillin in that vicinity.”

The filing throws another roadblock at efforts to expand the city’s overtaxed (and shrinking) shelter system amid growing homelessness.

San Diego leaders had hoped to open nearly 200 parking spaces for residents to sleep in their vehicles by early next year, and the California Coastal Commission, which unanimously approved the project over the summer, further said the city was allowed to later install large tents that together could hold 600 people.

Representatives for San Diego and the commission declined comment, but leaders have previously defended the plan as both legal and a way to save lives.

The controversy

H Barracks, like most shelter proposals, received blowback from the start.

Some opposition came from neighbors concerned with how the project might affect Liberty Station’s shops and schools. One group even formed a nonprofit to fund a potential legal challenge, although Point Loma CARES ultimately decided not to sue on its own, according to CEO Derek Falconer.

The organization will instead symbolically join Friday’s lawsuit by filing a supportive amicus brief.

McMillin’s case partially rests on the Naval Training Center San Diego Reuse Plan, a document drawn up in the 1990s spelling out what the city may do with the onetime military base. Local officials at the time did discuss offering on-site aid to homeless residents but decided to instead direct millions of dollars toward services elsewhere in the city, according to records compiled by the real estate group.

That decision, combined with the fact that shelter isn’t explicitly listed as an option for the land, means San Diego needs more than just the coastal commission’s OK, McMillin’s lawyers say.

City officials disagree. Before the lawsuit was filed, mayoral spokesperson Rachel Laing said she was optimistic the City Council would soon vote on a measure affirming that the original reuse plan allowed for homeless services.

In addition, McMillin says San Diego’s proposal ignores rules set by the California Environmental Quality Act.

That argument could be complicated by a new state law that largely lets shelters sidestep CEQA. The governor signed Senate Bill 1361 over the summer, although the measure doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1.

In an interview, Mark Zebrowski, an attorney for McMillin, said he didn’t believe the legislation derailed any part of their case.

The lawsuit asks a court to at least temporarily block homeless services at H Barracks and for reimbursement of attorney fees, among other requests.

The hotel

The lot has been bare since aging barracks shaped like giant H’s were demolished months ago. While the seven-acre site is scheduled to eventually host part of San Diego’s Pure Water recycling system, that initiative is still years from completion.

The reuse plan does not appear to specifically allow for Pure Water either, although the agreement says the area may hold a Metropolitan Wastewater Lab. Regardless, Friday’s lawsuit does not oppose the Pure Water system.

Next door are a Hampton Inn & Suites and a TownePlace Suites by Marriott, and McMillin hopes to eventually launch a third hotel with 247 rooms, according to a letter Zebrowski wrote to the Coastal Commission. However, he added, “McMillin’s current financial partner is not likely to proceed” if “the H-Barracks Shelter use is approved.”

He declined to identify that potential investor.

While San Diego leaders have said they only want to use the site as a safe parking lot, the odds of installing two 300-person tents could increase if other shelter proposals falter.

Council members previously delayed a decision on a separate plan to install 1,000 beds in an empty Middletown warehouse over concerns that the lease would put the city at legal and financial risk. Laing, the spokesperson for Mayor Todd Gloria, said negotiations were ongoing.

The city released a formal Request for Information Friday asking if any local property owners had buildings that could be converted into shelters.

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