FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DEL MAR, CA – July 8, 2025 – The Del Mar City Council has formally adopted a resolution in support of the proposed Our Neighborhood Voices statewide ballot initiative, joining a growing number of California cities seeking to restore local authority over housing development, zoning, and land-use decisions.

In a 3-0 vote on Monday, with Councilmember Dan Quirk absent, the Council approved the resolution endorsing the initiative for placement on the 2026 statewide ballot. Del Mar becomes the latest city to lend its support, following endorsements from more than 40 municipalities across California, including the North County cities of San Marcos, Oceanside, and Encinitas.

The Our Neighborhood Voices initiative aims to amend the California Constitution so that local housing and land-use laws take precedence over conflicting state statutes. Currently, state laws supersede local regulations, a shift driven by approximately 450 new housing-related laws passed in the past eight years—many focused on increasing density (such as SB 9) and limiting local control (such as SB 330).

Councilmember Tracy Martinez emphasized that the state’s one-size-fits-all approach fails to account for the unique needs of coastal communities like Del Mar and often conflicts with other state regulations under the Coastal Act.

“By signing this, we say we’d like local control,” Martinez said. “I think it’s really important that local governments get their power back, and not an overreach by Sacramento.”

Martinez and Mayor Terry Gaasterland stressed that they support the development of affordable housing but noted that current state laws provide few incentives or requirements for developers to produce low-income units. Instead, they argued, the laws primarily benefit developers by enabling high-end luxury apartments that drive up overall rents.

“We do believe in affordable housing, so I don’t want that to be misunderstood by anybody. But we also know what’s happening now is not working. We’re not getting more affordable housing; we’re getting more high luxury apartments that are raising the price of all rents, because that becomes the new norm,” Martinez said.

Both officials also expressed frustration with the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) process. Under the latest cycle, SANDAG allocated 163 housing units to Del Mar to produce by 2029, based on job data that the city determined was significantly overstated—approximately half of the 4,484 jobs counted were part-time or seasonal positions tied to the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

“It’s an arbitrary number depending on transient jobs at the summer fair,” Gaasterland said.

The ballot initiative is sponsored by the nonprofit Our Neighborhood Voices. To qualify for the 2026 ballot, the measure requires 874,641 valid petition signatures from registered California voters.

For more information about the Our Neighborhood Voices initiative, visit https://www.ourneighborhoodvoices.com/.