Final approval of the ongoing Midway Plan update has been delayed due to traffic, congestion and infrastructure concerns in the largely industrial\/commercial area.
\nThe Midway\/Pacific Highway Corridor between Old Town and Point Loma has an urbanized commercial core containing numerous shopping centers. The corridor contains some of the city’s oldest industrial areas, defined by large-scale buildings and unscreened commercial parking lots. There is significant warehouse space, as well as some residential, mostly in the corridor\u2019s fringes.
\nA handful of neighbors in nearby Point Loma turned out June 20 at Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning Group\u2019s monthly meeting, to protest a proposal in the group\u2019s plan update, which calls for the addition of 9,650 new residential dwelling units to the existing 1,935 units in the area, totaling 11,585 dwelling units at full build-out in 30 years.
\nCouncil aide Bruce Williams told the group District 2 Councilmember Lorie Zapf is “concerned about what the future traffic situation would be with the build-out of the proposed plan due to traffic in Midway, and access to I-5 and I-8.”
\n“Those aren\u2019t going to be built overnight,” said plan group chair Cathy Kenton, adding she was concerned that “we\u2019re seeking short-term solutions today for long-term needs. We\u2019re trying to find a solution to make [traffic] better.”
\n“Why not do the infrastructure first, then add the people?” asked an audience member, adding, “You can\u2019t shove this down people\u2019s throats.”
\n“Nobody is saying we\u2019re adding the people today,” replied Kenton. “There isn\u2019t enough funding for (new) infrastructure.”
\nCity planner Vickie White noted the plan update “has been a community-driven process” in collaboration with the city to present a plan that provides mitigation for traffic increases with rising residential population.\u00a0
\nFrom the audience, cycling advocate Nicole Burgess said: “When you\u2019re looking at the future of traffic congestion, you have to think outside the box, come up with more creative alternatives, other than building more highways,\u00a0 to deal with congestion. You need to transform the community with more walking- and biking-friendly alternatives, so you won\u2019t get as much pass-through traffic.” In other action:\u00a0
\n\u2022 Bruce Williams has returned as community liaison between Midway and the District 2 City Council office. Burgess, District 2\u2019s rep in the City of San Diego\u2019s Bicycle Advisory Committee, advocated removal of 20 parking spaces on Sports Arena Boulevard to make the busy thoroughfare safer for bicyclists. “Bicyclists have to share the lane with cars going 40 mph,” said Burgess. Board member Judy Holiday, a resident of The Orchard on Hancock Street, opposed Burgess\u2019s suggestion. She noted the surrounding area is “severely lacking in parking, we don\u2019t have enough.” Holiday pointed out each and every available paring space is valuable. Following a back-and-forth debate, the group voted 5-4 in favor of writing a letter advocating the removal of the parking spaces on Sports Arena Boulevard to accommodate an existing Class 2 painted bike lane there.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Final approval of the ongoing Midway Plan update has been delayed due to traffic, congestion and infrastructure concerns in the largely industrial\/commercial area. The Midway\/Pacific Highway Corridor between Old Town and Point Loma has an urbanized commercial core containing numerous shopping centers. The corridor contains some of the city’s oldest industrial areas, defined by large-scale […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":274459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Approval of Midway Plan update delayed","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274458","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=274458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}