Talks on Lawsuit Over Proposed Scripps Ranch Development Collapse

Negotiations toward a controversial, politically sensitive legal settlement between two developers and two local environmental groups have broken off, and no new talks are imminent, one of the participants said Monday.

“There’s nothing on the table. There’s nothing being discussed. It’s over,” said Bob Glaser, chairman of San Diegans for Managed Growth.

Glaser’s organization and the Sierra Club, which are plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging two developers’ right to build in a hilly tract near Scripps Ranch, had been quietly negotiating a settlement under which the environmental groups would drop the legal action in return for a cash payment of about $500,000 from the two builders.

News reports of the deal Friday sparked pressure from building industry representatives on the two developers, the Donald L. Bren Co. and the Brennan Katkov Development Corp., and a letter from Mayor Maureen O’Connor chastising the environmental groups.

Lost Decision Last Year

By Friday evening, the developers had changed their position and were refusing to offer a no-strings-attached payment in return for an end to the lawsuit over 320 acres of land known as the “county island” annexed by the city last year. The environmental groups lost a Superior Court decision last year, but have appealed to the 4th District Court of Appeal.

The lawsuit claims that the land is part of the city’s future urbanizing area, which is off limits to development without a vote of the city’s residents, under laws established by the 1985 Managed Growth Initiative.

Glaser said Monday that the two organizations could not accept conditions on the payment and would press forward with the lawsuit.

“They started requiring strings (on use of the money) and we wouldn’t accept any of that,” Glaser said. “After the publicity on Friday, they started saying ‘You (can) only use it for this or that.’ ”

Helping to Buy Famosa Slough

Ken Polin, attorney for Brennan Katkov, said Friday that one possibility for a deal involved spending the money to help the city purchase the Famosa Slough. Polin and others involved in the negotiations could not be reached for comment Monday.

O’Connor, who accused the environmental groups of being “for sale,” said that the organizations had harmed their credibility by appearing ready to cut a deal, but could undo some of the damage by halting negotiations.

“They should just keep it clean,” said O’Connor, who was labeled the council’s top environmentalist by the Sierra Club last month. “Clean is proceeding ahead with the lawsuit or just dropping the lawsuit if it’s a bad lawsuit.”