Emails are lighting up across Point Loma as residents realize some of the plans the Port of San Diego has for the bay and for Shelter Island. And the residents most concerned are trying to get the word out that the Port needs to hear from them by time of the deadline for public comment – July 31.
As Geoff Page explained in his report of the Port District’s presentation at the most recent Peninsula Community Planning Board meeting:
The Port is updating its Master Plan and they have what they call a Discussion Document out for public comment.
The problem for many is that the end of the 90-day public comment period is July 31 and it seems a lot of people are just now hearing about this. The news in the past couple of weeks seems to have alerted people to what is happening. …
The Port’s plan is to review the comments and issue an EIR in the spring of 2020, have it approved in the fall of 2020, and then certified by the Coastal Commission at the end of 2020. Fairly fast tracked it seemed.
There was also a Port presentation at the Midway planners’ meeting, as Page noted:
This was the same reaction at the Midway-Pacific Planning Group meeting the day before the PCPB meeting. At the Midway meeting, the Port’s presenters were questioned about how the Port had been letting people know the document was out for a 90-day comment period. It was clear that this was a surprise to some of them.
There was also a public hearing on July 23 at Liberty Station which about 50 or 60 Point Lomans attended with standing room only. As one Point Loman commented regarding that meeting:
Today’s July 23 meeting, – 8 days- before the deadline for comments-, was the first that the vast majority of the Point Loma audience had heard about the so-called “Community Discussions”
The whole mess reads like a big time scam gone terribly wrong!
Locals are not pleased – to say the least – with the plans the Port has for Shelter Island, nor with other elements of the Master Plan, such as mandating, as the Point Loman noted, “1600 new hotel rooms be added to our tidelands, w/ the cute codicil ” to maintain current height limits, “IF FEASIBLE”!”
Also, the Point Loman said, in an email sent out to various people across the Peninsula, “One of their more or less sober plans calls for the elimination of the Harbor Police Dock and replace it with a luxury hotel.”
He and others are urging locals to give the Port a piece of their mind, via emails or snailmails.
Letters and emails need to be in by the 31st of July – next Thursday.
Email: Addressed to the port via email: PMPU@portofsandiego.org
Snailmail:
Port of San Diego
Attn. Planning Department
3165 Pacific Highway
San Diego, CA 92101
In terms of outreach and public notice, the Port lists a whole number of community hearings and Community Discussions. They had one at the Port HQ in June, also others in La Mesa, Rancho Bernardo and the Tijuana River Valley. Notice anything strange? Did the Port first contact those communities the furthest from the Bay to begin their outreach?
Yet no notice to neighborhoods close to the Bay until the last couple of weeks.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
PU..icky goo
Sounds very familiar with what happened concerning plans for Famosa Open Space, except I noticed more PCPB board members are upset about this project. I can only guess why.
This is exactly what FAA did when they slid flight path changed in. We had about 3-4 days to send comments. We need to blast the Mayor and City Council, since they appointed them! But first write or email the Port!
Agreed.
But it was FAA, Airport Authority, City & County of SD – the whole lot, not to mention Cal DOT (Division of Aeronautics’ Office of Airports).
I read the report has it relates to Pt Loma. What a load of unbuildable stuff they want to build. Everyone plaes send them a note and let them know that it is no
last desperate push to build on the artificial shores before they are gone, the trauma will be massive
Well it’s coming down to the Finish Line. at least as the public comment is concerned. One can only wonder where it’s all going. Heard this afternoon that the Port wants 1600 new hotel rooms on Shelter Island alone. The representatives of the Port are so vague in their presentations that it’s difficult to actually know what they want. Heard another report that the real reason the Port wants to do away with the 3 piers on La Playa Cove is that it would free up more space for the expansion of rentable marina spaces. I’m surprised that the waterfront community hasn’t formed a conservancy to monitor affairs on the waterfront, such the Balboa Park Conservancy, the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Group, The Cabrillo National Monument Foundation and so on. San Diego Bay -and especially the North Embacadero- is every bit important as Balboa Park. As Father Serra said 200 years ago: Onward!!