Spirited debate filled the Peninsula Community Planning Board\u2019s May meeting as residents turned out to protest a proposed affordable housing development and a plan to convert the North Chapel in Liberty Station into a restaurant.
\nA five-acre, open-space site at Famosa and Nimitz boulevards, which recently had a makeshift pump track on it closed by the City, became a major bone of contention at the May 17 meeting.
\nOwned by the San Diego Housing Commission, the site is proposed to be developed into a 78-unit affordable housing project. SDHC reps told the group the project is in the preliminary phase, with tests ongoing to ensure the site\u2019s viability for development.
\nDuring a 1 1\/2 hour debate, citizens questioned whether the development would actually be affordable. Several argued what is really needed in the community is more public open space. One woman challenged the site\u2019s legal standing, saying she couldn\u2019t find documentation confirming the site was not meant to be left as open space in perpetuity.
\nAn SDHC attorney countered that the agency wasn\u2019t “hiding the ball,” noting the site was officially changed from open space to city ownership by a two-thirds public vote in 1956.
\nAny project traffic study not done while local schools are in session, reflecting higher traffic counts, would be “disingenuous,” argued one neighbor. Another complained affordable housing is a misnomer given “there is no rent control in San Diego.” Yet another decried the affordable housing project as unfair to local residents “who are invested in the community and whose property values would be negatively impacted by affordable housing.”
\nA\u00a0 fourth person testified senior housing is a more serious housing need in the Peninsula.\u00a0
\nCPB board member Jerry Lohla defended the SDHC project saying, “This is quality stuff.” He argued there are many working families who would benefit from it.
\nColleague David Dick warned residents to be careful what they wished for, noting if they turned down affordable housing on the site, “they might end up with [a less appealing] development like what\u2019s occurring on Voltaire.”
\nPointing out it\u2019s been a year since the public hearing on the SDHC project, board member Don Sevrens suggested a public workshop be held to fully vet the public\u2019s concerns.
\nPCPB voted to hold a special meeting about the SDHC site Thursday, June 7 at the group\u2019s usual place and time in the Peninsula Library\u2019s community room. North Chapel Following testimony from mostly church members urging PCPB to oppose turning North Chapel at Liberty Station into a restaurant, the plan group voted unanimously to do just that.\u00a0
\nPlanner Mark Krencik noted the community has had a “passionate conversation” about the chapel\u2019s proposed conversion. While acknowledging North Chapel is considered historical both inside and out, Krencik pointed out the chapel is also designated for “commercial use” in the NTC Precise Plan governing the former Navy base\u2019s redevelopment.
\nFrom the audience, Ron Slayer noted the chapel is “probably the least altered of the buildings” in historical Liberty Station, which has strict rules against modernizing existing architecture. “All the wood furniture, including the pews and pulpit are in their original condition,” said Slayer. “This is a notable visual landmark.”
\nNoting the chapel was built right after Pearl Harbor and was used by servicemen before and after World War II. “We don\u2019t need another restaurant,” Henry Garon said.
\nWhat we need to do is honor those sailors who fought for our liberty, some of whom did not return.”
\nDoug Prashant concurred with Garon. “This is sacred ground,” Prashant said. “By not preserving it as a chapel, we\u2019re desecrating it. It really needs to be protected.”
\n“It\u2019s a travesty,” said board member Don Sevrens of converting the chapel into a restaurant.
\nNew board member Robert Tripp Jackson said “the train will have left the station” if immediate action isn\u2019t taken to preserve the chapel and its furniture.
\nPCPB voted unanimously to send a letter to Liberty Station developers McMillin Cos. urging them not to redevelop the North Chapel and to allow parishioners to worship there until\/unless another use for the site is determined.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spirited debate filled the Peninsula Community Planning Board\u2019s May meeting as residents turned out to protest a proposed affordable housing development and a plan to convert the North Chapel in Liberty Station into a restaurant. A five-acre, open-space site at Famosa and Nimitz boulevards, which recently had a makeshift pump track on it closed by […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":266305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Peninsula planners debate affordable housing, North Chapel conversion","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}