Midway – Pacific Highway Community Planning Area. (Click on image for larger version.)
By Tony de Garate
At a critical — perhaps even historic — time for the Midway community, two positions are available to serve on a volunteer citizen board that is overseeing an effort to determine what growth will look like for the next two decades.
The Midway Community Planning Group will host the balloting March 16 from 2:30 to 3 p.m. in the downstairs lobby of the West City Campus of San Diego Community College, Continuing Education, 3249 Fordham St. The group’s regular monthly meeting will follow upstairs in Room 205.
Both voters and candidates must live, own property or operate a business in the Midway Community Planning Area. Candidates, in addition, must have attended a meeting in the past year. To appear on the printed ballot, hopefuls must email Melanie Nickel, the group’s chair, by March 14 at MelanieN@stanfordalumni.org. Those who miss the deadline may run as write-ins.
A short history and map of the planning area, which borders both the Ocean Beach and Peninsula community planning areas, can be viewed here.
Well known for its traffic snarls, big-box retail outlets, medical marijuana, adult entertainment, fast food eateries, auto service providers and a host of light industrial uses, the community faces some important decisions regarding its future. The city is currently developing a new community plan, intended to be a blueprint for the future with specific proposals for land uses and public improvements. The current plan was approved in 1991 and amended in 2010.
The planning group has spent the beginning of the year advising city staff as it writes a Mobility Report designed to change the car-dominated region into a community accessible for bikes and pedestrians and, at the same time, improve traffic flows.
Due to a historic quirk, the group usually skips elections every three years, and wasn’t supposed to have one this year. But an exception was made this year due to the resignation of two of the 12 members. One of the members stepping down is Nickel, who has been a group member since 2000 and has served as chair since 2010.
Like the other 40-plus boards and groups in the city, the Midway Community Planning Group is officially designated to make recommendations about land-use and quality-of-life matters to the San Diego City Council and other government agencies.
{ 0 comments… add one now }