Unified Port of San Diego representatives updated community members at the Peninsula Community Planning Board meeting Dec. 20 and asked them to recommend vacating part of North Harbor Drive between Nimitz Boulevard and Scott Street so the port of San Diego can move forward with plans to realign North Harbor Drive.
The PCPB unanimously denied the Port of San Diego’s request to vacate that section of North Harbor Drive.
Marguerite Elicone said part of the street is under the city’s jurisdiction and that the Port of San Diego needs the street vacated to complete the project.
She said the port would work with the Peninsula Community Planning Board and District 2 Councilmember Kevin Faulconer to come to an agreement on the project.
“We do want the community support and it’s important to have that support,” Elicone said. “We’re going to try to work harder to come up with something the community would support.”
There is, however, a lot of uncertainty about the project, according to PCPB member Gary Halbert. One of the recurring objections to the realignment project during the meeting was the lack of a completely detailed design presented outright to the community.
“They [the Port of San Diego} shouldn’t move forward with their request for a street vacation until they have a complete design,” Halber said.
The project plans entail the addition of 188 parking spaces, the addition of several trees and the removal of the “free right turn” from Scott Street onto North Harbor Drive.
Construction on the $4 million project is projected to begin in July of 2008 and take about six to nine months, Elicone said.
Doing away with the “free right turn” lane would also improve the safety of the area and allow disabled access to the crosswalk at Scott Street and North Harbor Drive, she said.
“There is no disabled access at the crosswalk, so this new crosswalk will make it easier for everyone,” she said.
After it is reopened, the area along North Harbor Drive and adjacent lot would be able to accommodate about 462 parking spaces made up of both paid and unpaid parking spaces.
Currently, there are about 274 spaces. Adding more parking spaces would address the current parking deficiencies in the area, Elicone said.
Halbert said port officials could improve parking with an agreement from the city without needing to realign the whole section.
Port officials said details about the number of spaces that would be paid, how many would be free and how it would be managed have yet to be decided.
“This is an important piece of the community and it needs to reflect well on the community. So we need to know just what it is that’s being fully proposed physically,” Halbert said.
An open letter to the community, read at the beginning of the December PCPB meeting on behalf of community member Joe Varley, also urged the planning board and the community at large to reject the North Harbor Drive realignment.
Read aloud by community planning board member Dee Wylie, the letter cited various reasons for objections, including increased traffic and the need for a larger parking structure to help address parking issues.
The PCPB is a community planning group that advises the city of San Diego on land-use-based development in the Peninsula area.
For more information, visit www.pcpb.net.