Save Our Heritage Organisation

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Plaza de Panama

Who Balboa Park Committee

What Plaza de Panama bridge, roads, and parking garage project; public comment
and workshops

Where Balboa Park Club Ballroom, 2150 Pan American Road West, San Diego CA 92101

When Saturday, January 8 · 9am-12pm

Why Without your voice this project could move forward and destroy the entrance to Balboa Park and its iconic Cabrillo Bridge forever.

Our Position SOHO and the greater San Diego preservation community strongly oppose the current plans for a bypass bridge and roadway to be built onto the historic Cabrillo Bridge in Balboa Park. The current proposal is extremely destructive and would forever alter the iconic Cabrillo Bridge and the historic landscape, and would hide the most important character defining features of the front entrance to this National Register District. The project also includes the removal of over 82 feet of the historic Cabrillo Bridge railing and lighting.

We cannot support the premise that a swath of concrete and massive fill bisecting the entire front façade of the National Historic Landmark Spanish Colonial Hilltop town and historic entry to the park is necessary in order to remove 70 parking spaces from the Plaza de Panama. The plan as currently conceived and recommended would destroy for all time the architectural, historic, and cultural integrity of Balboa Park, along with its historic landscape. The proposed addition would be in the most visible and destructive location possible. This plan is not consistent with any of the Secretary of Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties and is in fact the antithesis of these standards and must not be allowed.

The underlying premise that there is currently no other way to accommodate the removal of approximately 70 parking spaces from Plaza de Panama and to remove traffic from that area is flawed. Instead we are advising the best route to take is the one with the lightest impact, the quickest time line and the less costly project by starting with the basic tenant of restoration of the Plaza de Panama and removing excessive automobile traffic from the historic core.

The current design also includes a 900 parking space structure behind the Spreckels Organ Pavilion that would only encourage even more automobile traffic into the parks core solely for parking. This is not an appropriate site for the proposed garage. Placing the partially underground parking structure instead in a different area, possibly Inspiration Point or other areas on the periphery would be more appropriate. We believe a shuttle or tram service is the key to bringing visitors into the park. We encourage the removal of cars from the Plaza de Panama and the Palisades area and returning it to parklands is an important and admirable goal that should be pursued.

The temporary and immediate solution to remove the cars from the plaza is to route the traffic around the southwest quadrant of the Plaza de Panama as in the current precise plan. There are adequate areas behind many of the museums for parking displaced by this project to be added to existing lots or placed adjacent, as we look for a long-term solution that could include parking garages on the periphery of the park and a robust tram system.

There are several other potential solutions that are not being pursued.

We acknowledge the generosity behind the idea of this gift that Dr. Jacobs has offered. However, Balboa Park belongs to all the people of San Diego and it is the public who should decide its future.

We ask that you plan to attend this important meeting and that you write letters or emails to your local and state representatives rejecting the current plans and ask instead that they focus on the basic restoration of the Plaza de Panama and make use of the viable, simple options presented here as the solution to removing the 70 parking spaces. Please use the important points discussed in this email or the sample letter (HERE) to formulate your letter.

We also ask you to sign this online petition and further, to take responsibility for getting ten of your friends, neighbors and family members to sign as well.

Listen to interview with Bruce Coons, SOHO Executive Director, and Qualcomm cofounder Dr. Irwin Jacobs on KPBS's These Days from January 6, 2011.

Watch SOHO's video Protecting Balboa Park HERE
View slide presentation HERE
Download 31-page slide presentation pdf HERE

Click HERE to contact decision makers involved with this project
Click HERE to contact local and state representatives. Thank you sincerely for your time, your voice is important; you can make a difference.

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