Midway Community Planning Group got briefed in February by the San Diego Association of Governments on a plan to implement the Mid-Coast Trolley extension linking Santa Fe Depot downtown to Westfield UTC, serving major activity centers along the way, including Old Town.
SANDAG is San Diego’s regional transportation planning agency.
SANDAG senior regional planner Miriam Kirshner gave a presentation on the implementation strategy for the Mid-Coast Mobility Hub in the Old Town Transit Center. The Mid-Coast Trolley will offer a one-seat ride from the international border to University City when it’s completed in 2021.
The Mid-Coast Mobility Hub Implementation Strategy will identify services and amenities for stations like Old Town, which may include improved pedestrian and bike connections, secure bike storage, on-demand ride sharing services, wayfinding and supporting technologies.
“We’re in the very early stages of data gathering and public outreach,” said Kirshner, noting Mid-Coast is “a new project being funded by a grant from the Federal Transit Administration.”
Kirshner added the implementation strategy is meant to “improve connections between neighborhoods and the transit centers.”
Pointing out mobility hubs are “nothing really new or innovative,” Kirshner said hubs allow “additional bike and pedestrian improvements including bike lanes, raised crosswalks with street markings and creation of new bike storage bins and racks.”
SANDAG officials also passed out an implementation strategy questionnaire to fill out surveying trolley users on whether or not they have a Compass Card, a smartphone, whether they use shared mobility services like Uber, Lyft or other ride sharing, how often they use the trolley — and for what purpose — as well as asking them what their primary destination is using the trolley.
MCPG, which makes recommendations to the city on land use and issues of concern in the Midway-Pacific Highway corridor near Old Town and the airport, got other good news in February. The group learned that 2nd District Councilmember Lorie Zapf plans to bring the city’s new homeless “czar,” Stacie Spector, to MCPG’s April meeting. A longtime public relations professional and former Clinton White House staff member, Spector was hired by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer recently as his senior adviser on housing.
Midway has been particularly hard hit by ongoing problems with homelessness and vagrancy. In other action:
• In her president’s report, Cathy Kenton referenced a free mulch program available at [email protected]. She also discussed changes to community planning groups proposed recently by Scott Sherman, new chair of the city’s Smart Growth and Land Use Committee.
“He’s (Sherman’s) proposed making some changes in the 32 community planning groups including regionalizing them, and reducing their numbers by combining them,” Kenton said adding the committee is also considering relaxing regulations on companion units, making approval of “granny flats” easier.
For more information about Mid-Coast, visit www.KeepSanDiegoMoving.com/MidCoast.