San Diego

A measure to prevent the development of the Mission Beach Plunge will qualify for the November ballot, the San Diego city clerk’s office has ruled.

A random sampling of the 80,000 signatures on petitions turned in by opponents to the Plunge development shows that an estimated 56,200 of the names are valid, said Jack Fishkin, city elections officer. The group needed 50,449 valid names to qualify, said Fishkin.

Fishkin said the clerk’s office expects to officially certify the measure for the ballot by Monday and forward it for City Council consideration on March 9.

The names were gathered by the Save Mission Beach Park Committee, which is fighting plans approved by the council to raze a portion of the historic pool building and replace it with 70,000 square feet of shops and restaurants. The group’s ballot measure calls for the Plunge and adjacent property to be dedicated for park uses.

But the measure provides an exemption for projects that are well under construction in advance of the public vote, and Plunge developers said they will fit through that loophole because they expect to pull their building permits and begin demolition within a month.

Worried about that prospect, the Mission Beach Town Council voted last week to file a court injunction to stop the developers until the November vote. Kathy Scott, a town council member, said the group expects to retain a land-use attorney by early next week.