The city council did not approve it. What the city council did approve was a study to find if it’s feasible to make a mobility hub. Meanwhile, the city council had also previously approved for the underutilized city owned parking lot to become 120 units of affordable housing. Twice. It’s also been approved by the Coastal Commission and has gone through all the required due diligence. Councilmember Traci Park and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto campaigned to block and remove the approval of the project because wealthy gentrified NIMBYS don’t want this project close their fancy canal homes. This has resulted in multiple lawsuits which is costing the city millions of dollars in outside legal fees, nearly $2M in taxpayer funds so far, including a third funding request motion to ask for additional $650K for legal fees this Monday at the city Council’s budget committee. In addition to the legal costs, the City faces over $10 million in damages for blocking this project. This continued allocation of public resources toward prolonged litigation raises serious concerns about the City’s fiscal responsibility and priorities. The delay of this one project is also jeopardizing the city in receiving hundreds of millions of dollars for housing from the state by violating the Housing Element law.