In June, Pacific Beach Planning Group heard a proposal to include beach volleyball courts in the De Anza Revitalization Plan, as well as community concerns about the link between over saturation of alcohol licenses and crime.
\nChris Olson, PBPG’s representative on the De Anza Special Study Area, noted the De Anza project team, including city reps and consultants, will be at the group\u2019s Aug. 24 meeting. He added they will present on the De Anza Revitalization Plan, a reimagining of what Mission Bay Park’s approximately 4,000 acres of beaches, parklands, SeaWorld and more could become.
\n“We have to consider current \u2013 and planned \u2013 uses and future needs, not only in that area, but around Mission Bay and throughout the region,” Olson said.
\nThe goal of revitalizing De Anza is to “enhance public use and diversify recreation, both on land and in water,” Olson said.
\nOlson then introduced former beach volleyball pro and teacher Jeff Smith, who pitched the group on the possibility of using two of De Anza Regional park’s acres to create new volleyball courts.
\nSmith, who’s been involved in beach volleyball in PB since 1997, said the sport is “exploding.”
\n“I started out with 10 girls, and now I have 200,” said the volleyball instructor.
\nHowever, Smith noted, there’s a problem.
\n“We need two acres for 18 courts, because there is no parking \u2013 or room \u2013 for students competing with adults for extremely limited existing beach volleyball space,” he said.
\nThus far, Smith complained that the broad-based stakeholder committee of user groups reconsidering De Anza Park’s uses has been unresponsive to his suggestion to add new beach volleyball court space.
\nDiscussion then turned to the wisdom of maintaining the status quo of Mission Bay Golf Course, the only night-lit, city-owned Golf Course which Olson noted is losing $600,000 annually. Olson added there are three options with the golf course: leave it as is, modify it by cutting it from 18 to nine holes or making it just a driving range, or eliminating it entirely.
\nArguing golf’s popularity peaked 10 years ago and has been shrinking locally and nationally ever since, Curry said, “We need to think 10, 20 years ahead. To me, this is a huge subsidy just for golfers. Is it worth losing $600,000 a year for a green belt just so it looks nice?”
\nPBPG planner Henish Pulickal suggested the golf course restaurant, which has been closed, ought to be reactivated “because there’s such a big demand for it.”
\nColleague Eve Anderson agreed, noting the golf course’s restaurant had fared better previously under private ownership.
\nReferencing Pacific Beach Town Council’s (PBTC’s) June 15 meeting, during which it was announced that PB once again has the city’s second-highest violent crime rate behind East Village, Curry noted “we have to do something.”
\nCurry pointed out the T-shaped pattern of alcohol-related crimes in PB is along the intersection of Mission Beach Boulevard and Garnet Avenue.
\nBoardmember Tony Franco noted part of the alcohol problem stems from PB bars being widely spread out, instead of being concentrated in a more compact area. That’s something, Franco said, that others cities have tried with some success to curb alcohol abuse and prevent related crime.
\n“We need to bring the stakeholders together to the table and say, ‘There’s a mission,'” responded Curry. “This is a land-use solution. That’s what we do here.” In other matters:
\n\u2022 James McGuirk is replacing Liezl Mangonon as District 2 Councilwoman Lori Zapf’s representative for Pacific Beach. A former minor league hockey player, McGuirk, a UC San Diego grad, said he most wanted to represent PB, but had to wait for an opening. Mangonon will now be working with the councilwoman on policy-related issues. \u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In June, Pacific Beach Planning Group heard a proposal to include beach volleyball courts in the De Anza Revitalization Plan, as well as community concerns about the link between over saturation of alcohol licenses and crime. Chris Olson, PBPG’s representative on the De Anza Special Study Area, noted the De Anza project team, including city […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"PB planners discuss high crime rates, De Anza project","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551,11593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news","category-no-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298262","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=298262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}