Parking and traffic problems on and around the Peninsula area will affect everyone as projects such as the Rock Church at the NTC Promenade and the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan move forward.
Residents recently voiced concern over the future traffic problems during the Peninsula Community Planning Board meeting Thursday, July 19, as Doug Childress, executive pastor of The Rock Church, presented a plan to ease traffic created by the church.
Those attending the 3,500-seat church will park in any of the six parking lots at Liberty Station, Childress said. The church will take steps to make it easier for people to park and get around, and church officials plan to educate the congregation about different entrances and exits.
He also said Rock Church plans to convert Womble Road ” between Truxton Road and Historic Decatur Road ” to a one-way street on Sundays to ease the problem, he said.
“We anticipate a lot of visitors the first couple of weeks. We don’t know how many people will become regular attendees but the possibility is there we could fill up all of the seats,” Childress said.
The church plans to hold one service on Saturday at 5:30 p.m., with Sunday services at 8 a.m., 10 a.m., noon, 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., he said. Each service runs about an hour and 15 minutes, he said.
While it is unlikely the church would fill all 3,500 seats each service, a combination of church attendees and non-church traffic to the rest of Liberty Station could fill parking spaces quickly.
The Rock Church will likely need about total 1,700 parking spaces, according to Corky McMillin Cos. representative Greg Block. The Rock Church patrons will be able to use the parking spaces in the education and office districts, which should be completed by the end of the year, according to Block.
Block said McMillin has no plans for accommodating more vehicles at Liberty Station at this time.
The San Diego Redevelopment Agency works with McMillin to redevelop Liberty Station from it’s former use as the Naval Training Center.
Labib Qasem, a senior traffic engineer with the city’s Development Services Department, said that as traffic increases, McMillin would have to monitor the situation.
He said a parking study in the fall would provide McMillin and the city with the information it needs to mitigate traffic and parking needs.
A parking study would be conducted after the Rock Church, its school and other businesses open. He said the study would look at the actual numbers of vehicles using the parking facilities as compared to original projections.
“We’ve been expanding surface parking and we’re going to get to a point where we can’t do any more and we have to think about the parking structure,” Qasem said.
He added that a parking structure proposal would have to go through the Peninsula Community Planning Board before going to the City Council for a final decision.
As traffic continues to flow in and out of the Peninsula, future developments are also factoring in improved traffic flow.
According to plans for the first phase of the Embarcadero Visionary Plan, a 100-foot esplanade along the waterfront is slated for construction in 2009. The project would narrow Harbor Drive from West Hawthorne Street south to Pacific Highway, said Donna Alm, vice president of Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC).
Alm said the project would narrow North Harbor Drive to a three-lane street that includes a lane on each side, with a turn lane in the middle.
“The natural place for through-traffic to go is along Pacific Highway,” Alm said.
The Embarcadero Visionary Plan stems from an agreement between the CCDC, the Unified Port of San Diego, and the city to revitalize the area bounded by Laurel Street to the north, Market Street to the south and from the railroad right-of-way west toward San Diego Bay.
John Gilmore, a representative with the Port of San Diego, said that although the plan is eventually to improve traffic on the bayside along Harbor Drive, construction is likely to impede traffic further.
“What the traffic flow will look like really is not final yet.” Gilmore said. “All the developments will have to coordinate that [but] it’s our hope that there will be lanes,” Gilmore said.
The entire Embarcadero plan will take about 10 to 15 years to complete, Alm said. The project includes the esplanade, a wharf and the revitalization of the Broadway Pier among other developments.
For more information on the plan, visit www.portofsandiego.org.
The Peninsula Community Planning Board meets the third Thursday of the month at the Hervey Point Loma Branch Library, 3701 Voltaire St.
For more information on the PCPB, visit www.pcpb.net.