In March, Midway Community Planning Group (MCPG) seated new elected board members and were updated on the Pacific Beach pipeline project as well as being told the city will likely switch from temporary tents to a permanent homeless shelter.
Mike Wykosky, from Rick Engineering, and Catherine Smith, from city Collaborative Services, gave an overview of the Pacific Beach Pipeline South project, which will run through the Midway area into Crown Point and Pacific Beach, replacing 7.6 miles of water main, and about 1.6 miles of sewer main. The pipes are aging and need to be replaced to avoid service disruptions.
“We’ve been in the (project) design phase for three months,” said Wykosky, noting the design build project carries an estimated $25 million price tag, which includes planning, design and construction.
“Most of it (project) is right through the middle of us,” commented advisory group chair Melanie Nickel.
“Construction will probably begin next summer,” said Wykosky, adding that one lane in each direction will remain open for traffic during construction, much of which will be done at night to minimize impacts to area traffic circulation.
Nickel asked that Wykosky and Smith “come back when you have a little bit more about what’s going to happen when.” Homeless shelter
Regarding homelessness, MCPG was told that the plan now with emergency homeless housing is to get people out of temporary tents and into emergency housing beds in a year-round shelter at Father Joe’s in East Village downtown.
“We’ve tried to be good neighbors, supporting hundreds of homeless veterans in San Diego,” noted MCPG member Kurt Sullivan.
The advisory group was told the temporary tent shelter near the Goodwill on Rosecrans Street would likely be discontinued after March 31 in favor of the permanent housing proposal favored by City Councilman Todd Gloria. In other action:
• Opponents of the One Paseo project in Carmel Valley, passed recently by the City Council by a 7-2 vote, paid a visit to the advisory group seeking its cooperation in their petition drive to have the project’s approval overturned.
“This is supposed to be a public transit project, and the nearest public transit is four miles away from the project,” said Jarvis Ross, liaison to MCPG from the Peninsula Community Planning Group (PCPG). “Developments like this could impact any of our communities.”
“We’re (MCPG) not going to take a position (on One Paseo),” said Nickel.
• Nickel said the old vacant Cabrillo Hospital complex, which is in the process of being converted into an international school, had the city Planning Commission attach two conditions for its approval: add a noise wall to the project’s recreation area, and cut off activity at 9 p.m. so as not to disturb nearby residents. “We approved the conditional use permit,” Nickel noted.
• Tait Galloway, the city planner assisting MCPG with its ongoing community plan update, said “we’re (city’s) in transition” with that plan update, noting the city is still involved in computer modeling traffic for the project.
Nonetheless, Galloway said the hope is to have a revised draft for the neighborhood’s community plan update to the City Council for review by summer of 2016. “We’ll also be coming back to your group with our traffic analysis,” Galloway said.
MCPG meets the third Wednesday of the month at 3 p.m. at San Diego Community College West Campus, 3249 Fordham St., Room 208.