Save Our Heritage Organisation

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Just a few reasons to oppose the Mayor's proposed "improvements" to Balboa Park in preparation for the 2015 Centennial include:

• Pseudo processing by the proponents ~ This project was baked behind closed doors and has all the earmarks of a "cram it down our throats" effort by the mayor. San Diego residents have legitimate reasons to be angry about the opaque manner in which this project was put together.


• Paid parking in the park ~ The proposed 800+ parking structure behind the Organ Pavilion, if approved and built, will initiate the domino process of eliminating free parking in Balboa Park for San Diego residents.


• Bypass bridge ~ An unacceptable alternative that would forever debase the historical entry to the park.


• Autos over people ~ The bypass bridge, the reshaping of the Alcazar parking lot, the access road along the Esplanade to the new parking structure . . . This project would increase and embed for years into the future the automobile into the Central Mesa of the park.


• Walls and barriers ~ The construction of massive retaining walls and earth fill within environmentally sensitive Palm Canyon to accomplish the valet parking for Old Globe patrons in the Alcazar Garden parking area.


• Look who's left holding the bag ~When (not if) the new parking structure's revenues fail to cover the debt expense for the construction costs of the garage, the city of San Diego is on the hook . . . again.


• The cart before the horse ~ By approving the Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") before the required EIR process is completed, the city council would be inappropriately and illegally providing support to the project as proposed, rather than being open to the consideration of alternative solutions.


• Cars 1/ Pedestrians 0 ~ As proposed, the Jacobs project reconstructs the historic center of the park for the benefit of the automobile and patrons of the cultural institutions rather than San Diego's public users of the park.


• Just when we thought we had come up with the solution ~ The recently established Balboa Park Conservancy created to raise private donations for the park's lengthy list of needed capital improvement projects, may never get out of the starting gate due to the significant public opposition to this project. And that opposition was to the bypass bridge. Just wait until the public has the opportunity to take a look at the rest of the project's design plans! It gets much, much worse!


• Quicker, lighter, cheaper ~ This project is not needed for the 2015 Balboa Park Centennial to be successful. By simply removing the parking spaces from the Plaza de Panama, managing the traffic flow, providing off-site parking either on the east side of Park Blvd. and/or at Inspiration Point for major celebration events, and funding for an effective, park- friendly shuttle service (think green too), all this can be accomplished in time and without risks for the 2015 celebration.

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Save Our Heritage Organisation
2476 San Diego Avenue · San Diego CA 92110
Phones: (619) 297-9327; (619) 297-7511
Fax: (619) 291-3576
email: SOHOSanDiego@aol.com

Save Our Heritage Organisation is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization.

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