I urge the Peninsula Community Planning Board to reject the Port District’s plan for [realigning] North Harbor Drive for the following reasons:
The environmental impact report and Coastal Commission’s approval of this project were in 2001 and 2002 ” long before specific parking and traffic plans were available for the Pizza Nova development, the Marina Green project and Driscoll’s Wharf project concepts.
The EIR was prior to the Port installing 2-hour parking meters on Shelter Island Drive, which drove narina vendors and workers to park in Roseville commercial and residential areas.
The Port proposes to delete 185 free parking spaces and install 185 parking meters that would further drive parking out to nearby residential streets. These 185 spaces were to be scrapped and counted as 185 new spaces when there is no net gain. It appears the 185 spaces were counted several times in the old EIR in 2002.
The sportfishing industry has had unexpected successes, and this has resulted in further parking impact in residential areas.
The Port has known of the condos planned at Carlton and Scott [streets] and made no provision for the increased traffic and parking impact.
The Port has rejected the planned parking structure at the Westy’s lot that would mitigate the parking crisis.
The Port has ignored well-known future traffic and parking impacts from airport expansion, Liberty Station build-out and increased traffic from expansion of the Navy SPAWAR (Space and Naval Air Warfare) base at the south end of Rosecrans Street.
The Port is aware of future development of the commercial fishing component just east of the Driscoll’s Wharf project but has ignored the impact of that project as well as a planned project at the old Blue Crab restaurant site.
In light of these factors, known by the Port since 2001, it is totally disingenuous for the Port in 2007 to now present this project as a single stand-alone project without a parking structure to mitigate past and future parking impacts the Port has created. It is even more disigenuous to submit a 2000 Coastal Commission approval with a 2001 EIR report that clearly has never been modified with the 2007 information the Port is well aware of.
The Port District harvests millions in rent, taxes and lease revenue from the Point Loma Basin. It is time the residents insist the Port mitigate the parking and traffic crises they have created for those of us above the mean high tide line. A parking structure at the old Westy’s site could mitigate the parking issue.
The Port does propose a signal light to facilitate safe crossing of North Harbor Drive to the proposed Marina Green, Pizza Nova, Driscoll’s Wharf and for employees, vendors and marina parking for extended days. This safe crossing could help solve some of the current parking issues.