Six years and $2 million. That, City Councilmember Laura Lothian told her colleagues June 23, is what one entrepreneur spent trying to open La Mesa’s first rooftop restaurant and bar before giving up.
“She moved her money and creativity to the Gaslamp in downtown San Diego, where she got approval for her new restaurant in six months,” Lothian said, adding she had learned of the decision just that weekend.
The story was one of several Lothian recounted as the council approved the city’s fiscal year 2027 compensation plan, which pauses scheduled raises for management employees as the city confronts falling revenues and rising costs. Lothian pulled the item from the consent calendar not to oppose it, but to argue that the city’s budget problem and its permitting problem are the same problem.
“What’s been coming out this year is that our revenues are down and our spending is up, and we’re heading toward an operating deficit,” she said. She credited city management for what she called prudent first steps — cutting overtime, freezing hiring and declining the management salary adjustment — but called them stopgaps. “It’s not a strategy.”
When money gets tight, she said, there are two options: cut spending or raise revenue. Her case for the second rests on the businesses she says La Mesa has lost.
There was the La Mesa Emporium, a planned downtown food hall she compared to the one at Liberty Station, whose backer had assembled architects and historic preservation experts. After five years, Lothian said, he gave up and sold the property. It is now a real estate office.
There was Food of Joy, a healthy food delivery kitchen planned for a lot at Campo Road and Kenwood Drive. “Instead of a business generating sales tax revenue, it’s an empty lot filled with weeds and garbage,” she said.
And the losses are not all in the past, she argued. A landmark restaurant in the village is currently blocked from expanding its outdoor dining by a 10-foot sidewalk rule, she said — a standard she called reasonable except that several established village restaurants operate with sidewalks of four to seven feet. This echoes concerns that have been raised by business owners during public comment at meetings in recent years.
She also read from a text message sent to her by an entrepreneur who has opened two businesses on what she described as a formerly rough corner and is now trying to extend a kitchen by 20 feet and add about 30 seats.
“It’s really going bad, Laura,” she read. “I haven’t even gotten back my first set of reviews for the building. My design review plan check comments were crazy. The list is endless. I don’t think there’s any hope to have this even approved before summer ends. I feel really defeated.”
“I don’t think anyone that chooses to invest in La Mesa should ever feel defeated,” Lothian said. “It’s our process. We’re the experts, they’re not.”
Lothian, who has made permitting reform a theme across her five years on the council, was careful to spread credit as well as blame. She praised Community Development Director Lynette Santos, saying the department has made progress, but said internal challenges remain.
Her pitch was that fixing the process pays for itself. Every business that opens or expands generates sales tax revenue the city is otherwise leaving on the table — revenue that matters more with a deficit looming.
“When we solve this, we’re going to have that classic rising tide that lifts all boats, including City Hall’s,” she said. “I want to make La Mesa the easiest place in the county to open or expand a business.”
No other council member responded to her remarks, and the compensation plan passed as part of the consent calendar.