Manny Lopez | Uptown News

City Planners have recently been promoting the potential benefits of a streetcar operating between Downtown and Uptown, but some residents are raising concerns about safety, financing, connectivity and competition with mass transit.

The City’s Planning, Neighborhoods & Economic Development Department and the Uptown Community Parking District held a meeting on May 21 to discuss initial findings made as part of the Uptown Streetcar Feasibility Study.

The City’s planning department has also touted the advantages of a streetcar compared to other means of public transportation. A previous draft of the study stated, for example, that streetcars offered a better ride quality than buses, and less construction impacts than light-rail transportation.

Residents and business owners from North Park and Uptown met at St. Paul’s Cathedral to offer feedback on the plan, which calls for a 3.6-mile urban streetcar network that would run northbound on Fifth Avenue, southbound on Fourth Avenue and east and west along University Avenue. A connection point with Downtown has yet to be determined.

Mychal Loomis, an engineer at Kimley Horn and Associates — the design firm that conducted the study — told the audience that the project’s first phase could cost as much as $180 million. A final report is expected in June.

“I love the feedback, there is a lot of interest in streetcars,” said Samir Hajjiri, senior traffic engineer for the City Planning Division. “Now it’s a matter of putting the pieces of the puzzle all together to make it happen.”

Hajjiri explained that neighboring communities are also creating plans for streetcars and that what currently exists is an undeveloped and fragmented system in need of vision and centralization.

“It has to be brought all together into one system,” he said. “We need a champion who will be the voice for the streetcar. Then you’ll see the results.”

Transportation planner and Uptown resident Mike Singleton said that the community is in need of a streetcar network. Singleton added that a good return on investment is possible if development and redevelopment is encouraged along its route.

“The problem is going to be that there is a lot of pressure not to develop,” he said.  “If you can’t get that return back out of it by having more dense development along this corridor, then the return on investment is going to be really questionable.”

Sharon Gehl, a Mission Hills resident, expressed concern over safety-related issues. She said that from research and personal experience, she knows about serious accidents involving tracks and people on bikes. Gehl remarked that she was surprised more bikers didn’t speak up about safety related to street tracks.

Gehl also pointed out that the streetcar system is not intended for commuter traffic, but instead is intended for connecting people with commercial businesses and tourism.

“I would rather see them spending the money on making life easier for commuters,” Gehl said. “Improving San Diego’s bus system to make it more appealing and convenient would be a better use of our money.”

After the meeting, Marlon Pangilinan, a senior City Planner overseeing community plan updates in Uptown and Greater North Park, said the community’s concern over the lack of a connection to Downtown and surrounding communities was heard loud and clear, and the final report will reflect it. He said mobility issues must be analyzed as a part of the community plan update process.

“The streetcar plan was inserted as an optional scope in the event that funding for the project became available,” Pangilinan said. “Having the project already reflected in the community plan update will eliminate hurdles to changing the plan in the future.”

According to Pangilinan, the Uptown Parking District provided $94,000 to fund the feasibility study and has already allocated funds for the next phase of research.

Dave Sorenson, traffic engineer for Kimley Horn, said he prioritized ensuring the project’s widespread support in the community. He said the support of the community, businesses and elected officials is imperative due to the project’s big price tag.

Sorenson explained that the reason the streetcar plan did not emphasize connections with other communities was because the community plan update and financing from the parking district only reflect the Uptown community.

“We knew that the future connections were going to be important, but just to get this in the community plan now was really important, because it will get updated very soon,” he said.

An informational presentation on the Uptown Streetcar Feasibility Study published in December of 2013 is available at sandiego.gov/planning/community/profiles/uptown/pdf/streetcar_info_presentation.pdf.