Steve Peace's plan to remodel San Diego's downtown waterfront

San Diego — Ex-Democratic state senator Steve Peace, still peddling his plan to remodel San Diego's downtown waterfront, recently changed the articles of incorporation of the nonprofit he's been using to promote his agenda. Currently an aide to Padres owner John Moores, Peace first rolled out his controversial bayfront proposal back in January, saying it was sponsored by his California Independent Voter Project, which according to its incorporation papers was formed in May 2006 to "educate California residents on the importance of voting in all elections and on becoming informed on the issues and candidacies on their ballot." Critics suggested that Peace's lobbying for the waterfront plan, heavily favored by his boss Moores, who has property interests in the area, exceeded the nonprofit group's scope and might result in its decertification. But this June 1, an amendment to the corporate charter was filed, broadening the project's mission to that of educating "California residents...on how to become informed and active on the public policy issues affecting their communities and on their ballots."

Peace is chairman of the voter project; the group's president is his former legislative aide, David Takashima, who's now a registered lobbyist with the firm KP Public Affairs in Sacramento. On May 1 of this year, state records show that KP acquired a new client: SVDP Management, a nonprofit corporation run by Father Joe Carroll that operates Father Joe's Villages near Petco Park and has often fought with San Diego officials about redevelopment issues. Through June 30, the filings show, SVDP had yet to pay any money to KP.

Another KP client as of January 1, Petco Animal Supplies, Inc., spent $122,000 in the first six months of the year lobbying legislators regarding Assembly Bill AB 1347, the "Pet Store Animal Care Act."