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Residents urge National City to restore Sweetwater site to residential zoning
Summary
Public commenters at a special National City council meeting asked the council to return a long-vacant Sweetwater property from mixed-use to residential, raised CEQA and traffic concerns, and demanded release of ground-lease and other records; no council action was taken before the meeting moved to closed session.
A string of residents told the National City council on Monday that a parcel at Sweetwater—long cleared of homes—should be returned from mixed-use zoning to its historical residential designation.
Doyle Morrison, the first public commenter, said the site has been vacant for more than 40 years and asked the council to research reversing a prior spot-zoning decision. Another resident raised planning-commission findings, saying the project had been deemed a public-health and safety nuisance and flagged potential CEQA and traffic impacts.
"Please return it back to the historical use of residential zoning," a resident told the council. Multiple speakers said they wanted homes returned to the neighborhood rather than the proposed mixed-use project.
Public commenters also pressed the council to release documents related to a ground lease and an amended general plan, saying the lease still appears to be active and that more responsive records exist than have been produced. Michael Aguirre urged the council to halt any destruction of documents, reported testimony that city IT staff do not preserve text messages, and said no phones had been reviewed in response to public-records requests.
Several speakers explicitly alleged improper influence in the approval process. One commenter urged the council to investigate whether favors or undue influence from developers had shaped recent decisions and asked that the city act with transparency.
Council did not take public action on the item during the meeting. The special meeting moved into a closed session to discuss lawsuits and labor negotiations; the publicly available transcript does not record any vote or formal decision on rezoning or document release.
