SD offers deal on De Anza Cove

A settlement may come soon in the long-running legal battle over San Diego’s plan to evict residents from a waterfront mobile home park on Mission Bay, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said Friday.

A settlement would pave the way for the city to pursue longtime plans to transform the 76-acre park into a hotel, recreation facility or some other community amenity.

The City Council, in a session closed to the public, this week agreed to offer the roughly 300 residents of De Anza Cove about $22 million — plus another 7 million in attorney’s fees — to settle the case, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said Friday.

The settlement offer comes one month after Superior Court Judge Charles Hayes ruled that the city owed the residents the same amount being offered in the settlement, Goldsmith said.

In exchange for the money, the residents would agree not to appeal and they would be required to leave De Anza Cove, allowing the city to take over the land after 35 years of controversy and nearly 11 years of litigation.

“The City Council believes it is time to end the lawsuit, provide residents with reasonable compensation and reimbursement of attorney fees as determined by the judge, and return this park to the people of San Diego,” Goldsmith said.

There are still legal issues on both sides of the dispute that could be appealed, Goldsmith said, but he characterized pursuing those appeals as a bad idea.

“There are times when the lawyers should get out of the way and allow a problem to be solved without more litigation,” he said. “We think this is one of those times.”

The litigation began in 2003, just as the city was on the verge of evicting the residents because the park’s 50-year lease for the land had run out. The city, which has been trying to evict the residents since 1980, has argued they don’t deserve relocation fees because they don’t own property.

The judge, however, ruled that they are entitled to such payments.