By JEFF CLEMETSON | Mission Times Courier

On Oct. 1, the Navajo Community Planners, Inc. (NCPI) submitted comments on the SDSU West proposal’s draft environmental impact report (EIR). The planning group expressed three areas of concern with the EIR.

First, the NCPI Park and Recreation Subcommittee called for clarification that the Navajo community would be granted access to the proposed park in the SDSU West proposal as well as access to any recreation facility built. Under the terms of the Grantville Focus Plan and Navajo Community Update Plan of 2015, the Navajo community should receive 10 acres of the 30-acre park to add to the area’s park equivalency. The Navajo area is short on city park space and access to neighboring park space in Mission Valley would make up for it.

The community plan also says that if a 25,000-square-foot recreation facility is built, that Navajo would be able to access 5,000 square feet.

“The Navajo community would like to make sure that the development of the park(s) within the SDSU property is completed in such a way that reflects the Navajo Community Plan, and it is awarded these critical 10 acres of recreational area,” states the letter.

The NCPI also requested that the Allied Gardens Recreation Council have a say in designing, operating, and programming the 10 acres.

In addition to park space, the NCPI letter pointed out concerns over traffic mitigation. The letter stated that the traffic analysis for the entire SDSU West project does not extend east of Mission Gorge Road. The planning board letter pointed out specific areas that were “conspicuously absent” from the EIR report, including:

Zion Avenue between Mission Gorge Road and Waring Road.

Twain Avenue/50th Street/Orcutt Avenue between Mission Gorge Road and Waring Road.

Mission Gorge Place between Mission Gorge Road and Alvarado Canyon Road.

Alvarado Canyon Road/Adobe Falls Road between Mission Gorge Road and Waring Road.

The letter pointed out that Zion and Twain experience heavy traffic already during commuting hours and even more during stadium events.

“The residents of Allied Gardens will be adversely affected by the SDSU development. It is our understanding that our interests would have been addressed if this project was undertaken by a private developer under the aegis of the City Planning Department,” states the letter.

The NCPI letter also stated that the traffic impacts to Grantville created by the new campus development and stadium are not mitigated sufficiently. The letter asked SDSU to address mitigation efforts with either money to contribute or to build outright these specific projects:

• Camino Del Rio North at the Fairmount Avenue intersection.
• San Diego Mission Road at the Twain and Fairmount avenues intersection.
• Alvarado Canyon Road Re-alignment Project.