The Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB) this month heard about a new Bikeshare program coming to Liberty Station and debating the merits of a “granny flat” proposed on Granger Street that some fear could lead to more neighborhood rentals.
Angela Landsberg of Decobike, a private company which has partnered with the city to bring a short-term, privately financed station-to-station bike-rental business to San Diego as early as this summer, gave the PCPB an overview of the project. Users of the program would be able to rent bikes from any individual station and return them to any other station. The program calls for about 180 Bikeshare stations citywide.
Under the current plan, all proposed bike stations in Point Loma would be clustered in Liberty Station.
“San Diego has contracted with Decobike to bring their project to our city and the rollout date is expected later this summer,” said Landsberg, noting proposed station locations are being vetted in the affected neighborhoods.
“Deco and the city are open to hear advice and good arguments out there from the communities,” she said, urging local residents to submit their own alternative proposed locations for station sites.
Asked who would ultimately decide where Bikeshare locations will be placed, Landsberg said the City Council will have to sign off on the individual locations to be selected.
In another matter, Mark Perkett, representing the Tobos family, gave a presentation detailing the family’s plans to build a 700-square-foot “granny flat” on its 6,900-square-foot lot at 4451 Granger St.
Neighbors, however, questioned the proposal, asking how the city would ensure that the redeveloped property would ultimately be used as a “granny flat” and not as a second rental unit at the site.
One neighbor said local residents have had problems previously with college students turning rental properties into party houses. He warned this project could be precedent-setting, in that it could open the door to other properties in the area being similarly redeveloped. IN OTHER ACTION
• Planners heard that a proposal is in the city’s current budget asking that a park ranger be hired to split time between Sunset Cliffs Natural Park in Ocean Beach and Kellogg Park in La Jolla Shores.
• PCPB board secretary Nicole Burgess said Nimitz Boulevard has been resurfaced, creating a six-foot bike lane with three-foot buffers.
• The PCPB board approved writing a letter to the city traffic engineer about road-safety concerns following a presentation by boardmember Peter Nystrom. Nystrom said where Lytton Street transitions into Chatsworth Boulevard is an extremely dangerous area where “cars have been totaled in front of people’s homes and other cars have been sideswiped.” Other group members agreed, noting there is lot of student traffic in that area with Point Loma High and Loma Portal Elementary schools nearby.
• The PCPG meets the third Thursday of the month from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Point Loma/Hervey Branch Library, 3701 Voltaire St.