By Benny Cartwright
The Hillcrest Town Council is thankful for the many community members who showed up to help clean up the neighborhood on Monday, July 20, following San Diego Pride weekend. It was an unexpectedly wet weekend with record levels of rain pouring down on the celebration, which made cleanup a little more difficult.
Thankfully it wasn’t raining on the morning of the cleanup, but things were still wet and muddy. Thanks again to everyone who showed up to help out, and to Mo’s Universe for sponsoring the “Talking Trash” social afterward.
At our July 14 Hillcrest Town Council meeting, we heard some interesting presentations, both looking at possible future plans for the Uptown area.
Alan Hoffman, an adviser on transportation and long-range planning, shared with the group about the Uptown 2025 Proposal. This is a citizen-led effort to support the Mayor’s Climate Action Plan by targeting infrastructure investments that they believe, together, can solve many of the transportation and mobility issues facing San Diego’s Uptown communities, and vastly increase the role that bicycling and transit play in the zone. It is certainly an interesting set of concepts! For more information about this proposal, visit facebook.com/uptown2025.
We also heard from Tom Mullaney and Nancy Moors, who shared their thoughts about the city’s draft updates to the Uptown Community Plan. The city hasn’t updated the community plan since 1988, so it is great to hear their ideas. [Also read Uptown News’ coverage starting on the front cover of this edition.]
Mullaney, who sits on the Uptown Planners advisory group, and local activist Moors shared some of the highlights of the draft.
After public debate, the Hillcrest Town Council passed two motions:
- “We firmly support maintaining the traditional character of Hillcrest, the ‘historic feel’ that is essential to the neighborhood. We are opposed to the Density Bonus System, which would result in incompatible buildings, and densities much higher than can be supported by the street system and available parks.”
- “We are opposed to densities higher than 44 units per acre to the west of Highway 163, because this is necessary to ensure that new development is compatible with the neighborhood character of Hillcrest. “
More on these topics will certainly be coming soon as the Uptown Community Plan continues on its path toward approval.
Our next community meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 6:30 p.m., and we hope you’ll join us! As usual, there will be updates from representatives of local elected officials and other community organizations, followed by a presentation from the county’s top tax man, Dan McAllister. As the Treasurer-Tax Collector for San Diego County, many of you may only see his name when you get your property tax bill, but his office does a lot more. We look forward to hearing from him.
More information about the Hillcrest Town Council is online at hillcresttowncouncil.com.
—Benny Cartwright is secretary of the Hillcrest Town Council.
