At the last meeting of the Midway Planning Board meeting Wednesday, January 15. several people gave power point presentations of what they thought the area might become in the future. It is amazing that there has been little, if any, flack from these presentations.
For example:
1) It appears that the “Salvation Army” and the “Pier One” leases run out in a few years. It is said that Pier One wants to do some building improvements, but with the short time remaining on the lease they do not want to invest money and the City has stopped their negotiations. The City says that they want to wait for the Sports Arena lease to run out and see what might occur there. It is interesting to note that the lease does not run out for 10 years!
Does that mean that Pier One and the Salvation Army building will be empty. How long has the Black Angus been empty? That is a valuable piece of real estate that could be generating monies for the City.
The Planning Board suggested that they continue the leases to coincide with the Sports Arena. This would give them about 10 more years. If this does not happen the buildings will probably remain empty and who would want to lease a building knowing that in 5-6 years their lease would run out? There was no action on the suggestion.
2) Yesterday it was announced that the “El Rio Motel” – next to Fuller Liquor on Rosecrans has been closed. It is going to open up as a drug treatment facility there. They will house about 100 male “patients” and a staff of about 12-14 people. There was no notice to anyone that this was about to happen, let alone a chance for Planning Board members to make any comments, pro or con. There is virtually no parking, which will also cause difficulty.
3) Everyone has been asking what the Barnard school site is going to be. Apparently 176 apartment units are going to be built in that area. How ironic that they tore down a school that did not have ample enrollment to build 176 apartments. Are they going to be “adults only.” That is very doubtful. Where are the children living in those new apartments going to go to school? Look forward to high class sizes in whatever schools these new occupants will be attending. Can you imagine what the increased traffic will be like in the next few years?
It appears that those of us living in the Ocean Beach, Pt. Loma, and Midway areas need to become more aware of the what the Midway Planning Board is doing before it is too late. We have all heard about the Ocean Beach and Peninsula Planning Boards. We better add this one too. It wasn’t so long ago when there was talk of bringing the airport runway over to the midway area. Beware!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting to hear about 176 apartments scheduled to be built on the old Barnard location. I remember several years ago, the SDUSD was planning to raze Barnard before the Chinese Magnet school brought better enrollment prospects. The school land barons were going to build condos & sell them at low interest rates to potential & current teachers, as a way of giving sweet deals to entice employees to work for them. I think that corner lot should be turned into a park–something that is badly needed in that congested end of the Midway District.
I agree that something needs to go into that area besides more apartments. What a mess that is going to be!
Closing El Rio Motel to turn it into a drug rehab was a complete surprise. I never even hear ‘whispers’ it might happen. It is my understanding the deal was struck almost 6 months ago. Nothing, that I know of, came before the Midway Planning Board. Very frustrating when the powers that be sneak in things like this that may have a negative impact on our community.