By Dave Schwab | SDUN Reporter

If the City Attorney is unsuccessful in negotiating a settlement convincing preservationist Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) to drop its lawsuit challenging a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the city and the Plaza de Panama Committee, which is advocating spending $40 million to transform Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama into a car-free open space, the two sides are likely destined for a September court hearing.

In its suit, filed after the city’s adoption of the MOU on July 19, SOHO contends the action promoted by Mayor Jerry Sanders and the Plaza de Panama Committee precludes due consideration of other feasible alternatives and that it does so without first complying with appropriate environmental review mandated
by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQUA).

“They passed an illegal MOU at City Council pre-commiting them to the project cutting the public out of the process,” said Bruce Coons, SOHO’s executive director. “They need to complete the EIR (Environmental
Impact Report) before they commit to a single project.” In reply to SOHO’s suit, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith submitted a 12-page motion to voluntarily dismiss the case.

“I have no opinion on the proposed project,” said Goldsmith in a letter to SOHO’s lawyer Susan Brandt-Hawley. “The only purpose of this request is to avoid the expense of litigating this meritless case and to allow public discourse to continue.”

Goldsmith said the MOU is a “preliminary expression of cooperation and intent, which does not commit the city to any decision and reserves to the city the right and obligation to fully consider environmental analysis, including all project alternatives and mitigation measures, even the alternative of not proceeding with the proposed project.”

“The hearing on our motion is currently scheduled to be heard Sept. 2,” said Gina Coburn, communications
director for the City Attorney.

SOHO’s attorney Brandt-Hawley said both sides are interested in “quickly moving ahead to resolve this case,” although she expect the Sept. 2 date to be postponed.

In 2010, civic leaders, led by mayor Jerry Sanders and Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs, launched an effort to reclaim the Plaza de Panama and adjacent areas for pedestrian use in time for the 2015 Centennial celebration of the Panama-California Exposition. That is to be accomplished via a plan known as the Balboa Park Plaza de Panama, Circulation and Parking Structure Project.

Jacobs’ plan involves rerouting traffic off the Cabrillo Bridge and reserving the west Prado for pedestrians
via a bypass off the bridge, a suggestion attracting opposition.

Garage construction would be financed partly by Jacobs’ committee and with $15 million from a revenue bond repaid from parking revenues in the garage. Charging for garage parking is another controversial proposal, a variant of which would be to charge a small fee for parking, say $1, elsewhere in the park.

Under Jacobs’ proposal, cars entering the park from the west would be diverted, once they’ve crossed the Laurel Street Bridge, to an elevated roadway behind the Alcazar Garden, leading to the Alcazar parking lot. There, visitors could drop off passengers, use valet parking or continue on to a two-story parking structure to be built behind the Organ Pavilion. Shuttle service is also proposed.

But opponents of Jacobs’ plan, including SOHO, contend the project as proposed “would have devastating impacts on the iconic architecture and cultural landscapes of national historic landmark Balboa Park.

“There are feasible alternatives to address the park’s parking and traffic issues that are consistent with the adopted Balboa Park Master Plan and the Central Mesa Precise Plan,” one opponent said.

What Jacobs and the city should do, said SOHO’s Coons is to “have a truly independent environmental review of viable alternatives and pick the one that has the least impact on the park and the most benefit.”

Coons added major redevelopment of the park as envisioned in the Circulation and Parking Structure Project, “really needs to be done in the open not in old-fashioned backroom dealings by the City Council, the Plaza de Panama Committee and by strong-arm tactics by the mayor.”

In 2010, Mayor Sanders, noting Plaza de Panama was built for the 1915 Exposition as a grand ceremonial plaza for the public said, over time, that the plaza has been transformed into a grand ceremonial parking lot for cars.

“We will reclaim that plaza for ourselves and posterity before the park’s centennial celebration in 2015,” he vowed.