Midway planners unhappy with city’s timeline for Sports Arena feedback
SAN DIEGO The city distributed a draft environmental impact description for the Midway Rising Specific Plan to redevelop the Sports Arena site and had solicited stakeholders and the populace for comments But certain area planners declared they didn t have enough time to adequately digest such a complex plan and provide feedback The comments are to be included in the document for final approval by the San Diego City Council The council also will consider a long-term lease with Midway Rising to redevelop the -acre Sports Arena property The Midway Rising Specific Plan aims to create a mixed-use neighborhood with a new arena housing entertainment and commercial spaces The plan envisions a vibrant walkable center Build out of the specific plan would allow for about housing units including up to affordable units community parks and open space a multi-purpose entertainment center and up to square feet of commercial uses On May the Midway-Pacific Highway Region Planning Group held a special meeting during which the group unanimously ratified its letter responding to the city s environmental document on the Midway Rising project Population planners reacted negatively to the short timeline given for constituents reaction to such an extensive document on the long-term project Midway Rising is seeking to secure all necessary grading and construction permits in for the area s redevelopment At this moment there is a -year construction timeline on the project calling for it to be built in multiple phases MPHCPG wishes to express its extreme disappointment with the City s Improvement Services Department for its lack of respect states the letter pointing out the group was being questioned to respond to thousands of pages of documents in days The planning group concluded in its letter to the city that the group supports this project as the cornerstone of group redevelopment in our long-overlooked public Yet requiring a volunteer organization to ingest and evaluate such a large project the largest single affordable project in the country in such a short period is unconscionable and demonstrates the City s lack of interest in the group s input On the positive side the group commended the Midway Rising rise group for its commitment to not exceed feet in height for the entertainment center and feet for of all other buildings in the project The group s letter goes on to list several group concerns about the redevelopment including The need to understand how the upzoning of the project s city-owned parcels will affect Midway Locality Plan s projected full build-out of dwelling units How the pending redevelopment of federally owned land adjacent to Old Town Transit Center will affect the available density traffic noise etc while both projects are under construction and once they re completed Risks of rezoning negatively impacting vague infrastructure plans for the project which may disrupt utilities The historical impacts of the San Diego International Sports Arena and Kumeyaay materials along Rosecrans Street are at this moment under-addressed What is the approval notification process if Midway Rising at a later date wishes to exceed its self-imposed limitations We inquired multiple times for an environmental review extension and were denied declared Jason Vieira the planning group s chair Hopefully the city will see chosen of this information in our letter and address several of it
