City of San Diego sued for failure to enforce grant deed restrictions

The Fairbanks Polo Club Homeowners’ Association, successors to the grant deed governing use of the former polo fields property, filed a lawsuit against the City of San Diego on April 13, 2023, for its failure to enforce grant deed restrictions that run with the land. The grant deed bars large assemblages of people and cars (currently some 2,500 cars a day come and go on event weekends) and limits use of the property to passive, non-commercial recreational uses such as picnicking, walking, hiking, and similar activities. Most importantly, the deed restrictions limit use of the property to 25 days a year.

Surf Cup cited for violation of Federal Clean Water Act

The San Diego Regional Water Qualty Control Board on March 16, 2023 served Surf Cup and its corporate shell entities with a notice of violating the Federal Clean Water Act, among others for draining ponded storm water runoff from their property into the San Dieguito River.

Stormwater in wetland areas of Surf Cup’s recently acquired property at 3975 Via de la Valle being pumped into swale (top of photo) that drains into the San Dieguito River

Surf served with civil penalty for illegal grading

The City of San Diego notified Surf Real Estate LLC it was in violation of unpermitted grading on and alteration of the 24-acre parcel adjacent to Polo Fields (3975 Via de la Valle). Violations included removal of native vegetation (southern coastal salt marsh) from wetland within the property. Surf was also cited for unauthorized use of vacant land as storage for multiple soccer goal posts without required permits.

Post-grading view of 24-acre parcel north of fields

Florida corporation purchases land next to polo fields

Surf Real Estate LLC, a Winter Garden, Florida, shell corporation, on April 1, 2022, purchased the 24-acre parcel just north of the polo fields at 3975 Via de la Valle, for $6.6 million. The vacant land, including portions of coastal wetland habitat, previously had been considered for Hacienda del Mar, a senior living community. The developers, Milan Capital Management, abandoned the project after eight years of trying to resolve environmental and water infrastructure obstacles.

Recent Court Ruling: A Silver Lining in the Cloud

In 2016, the Friends of the San Dieguito River Valley filed a lawsuit against the City of San Diego and Surf Cup Sports LLC for failure to require an environmental review before awarding a 28-year contract to Surf Cup Sports for the use of the former Polo Fields. This lengthy process recently ended up in the Appellate Court ruling that a CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) Environmental Review for the lease of the former Polo Fields to Surf Cup was, and is, not required.

The silver lining in that cloud is that the court’s 32-page ruling, which was extremely well written and historically comprehensive, clarified some critical points that will guide the Friends, and others, in continuing to oppose the intensified use of the soccer fields.

Most importantly, the appellate ruling makes it absolutely clear that 25 days of events, NOT 25 events that last multiple days, are allowed at the soccer fields.

Going forward, the Friends will endeavor to hold accountable relevant departments within the City of San Diego that oversee the activities of Surf Cup. Our monitoring will help keep members of the JPA Board, including newly-elected District 1 City Council Member Joe LaCava and District 3 County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, as well as San Diego City officials Mayor Todd Gloria and City Attorney Mara Elliot, informed of ongoing impacts and lease violations resulting from Surf Cup activities.

Surf Cup Looking to Expand and Collaborate with Horsepark

While things have seemed quiet as everyone has been distracted dealing with the day-to-day challenges during the pandemic, Surf Cup has been hard at work continuing to further their interests despite their impact on our community.

As neighbors, we have seen the continued activities at Surf Cup with lots of cars and people without social distancing. However, the large-scale tournaments that were becoming commonplace prior to Covid have not yet been allowed to return. As a result, Surf Cup began moving their tournaments to Arizona, despite the December 14, 2020 state guidelines for youth sports which specifically stated "Teams must not participate in out-of-state tournaments; several multistate outbreaks have been reported in CA residents and around the nation." The Phoenix city council even voted on December 2nd to cancel all organized sports at the city’s fields to keep the thousands of athletes, coaches, and parents from around the country from coming there while virus levels were spiking, but Surf Cup found private fields instead. Surf Cup completely disregarded the CA state public health orders and organized tournaments with as many as 500 teams in AZ over the weekends of Dec 27-29 and Jan 1-4. This was a flagrant violation which completely undermined the efforts of health officials who were trying to keep the spread of the virus under control. While many residents were following rules and giving up family visits over the holidays, and others were struggling to keep their businesses afloat, Surf Cup proceeded with their reckless behavior, with no concern for the possibility of spreading the virus to their neighbors upon return.

Now it appears they have their sights on other business opportunities. As you may know, activities at the Del Mar Horsepark have ceased for the time being while environmental and financial issues are being worked through. There is very strong community support to help the 22nd District Agricultural Association Board (which manages and operates the Fairgrounds and Horsepark) in order to resolve the current problems exacerbated by financial losses during COVID and reopen the Horsepark as soon as possible.

The 22nd DAA Board has appointed a special Horsepark committee which held its first public meeting Friday. During public comment, Surf Cup Sports VP Rob Haskell stated that he understands the “historical use of that property is important to people” and wanted to propose some collaboration for uses to compliment the Horsepark equestrian uses. That is quite a statement coming from a group who repeatedly failed to recognize the importance of the historical use of the polo fields for equestrians and proceeded to kick out the SD Polo Club from using the fields Surf Cup now occupies. Later on, Surf Cup CEO Brian Enge stated, “We think we’ve done a really good job of serving the community”, and wanted to look at opportunities to collaborate and “drive growth and revenue” with Horsepark. In other words, they want to expand. And when they expand, they take over. Just ask the SD Polo Club.

To the people who care about Horsepark and hope to reinstate equestrian uses there, watch out. These are the same folks who refused to coordinate their tournament dates with the 22nd DAA in 2019 so as not to conflict with the busy County Fair dates resulting in dangerous traffic gridlock. These are the same folks who illegally pumped stormwater onto Horsepark property to try to salvage their Thanksgiving tournament after a rainstorm in 2019. The actions of Surf Cup have proven time and time again to be only in serving their own economic interests and have not served the neighboring community. Clearly, they sense an opening to capitalize on the situation at the Horsepark across the street, and while we have all been trying to survive these challenging times and maintain a somewhat “normal” life during Covid, Surf Cup is thinking ahead to how they can expand and bring in more revenue when this is over. We need to all remain vigilant and keep them from getting a toehold in to the future at Horsepark. To the equestrian community, please heed our warning. Their interests do not align with yours, no matter what they may tell you.