By Bonnie Kutch / OpEd – San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 9, 2023
University City is one of those San Diego neighborhoods where everyone living here feels like they belong — regardless of age, ethnicity, religion or class. Residents know their neighbors and look out for them. It’s not uncommon for second and third generations of families to live within blocks of one another, because there’s really no better place to call home.
On any given day, you will see young people pushing their baby strollers down the sidewalks, often with their dogs in tow. On weekends, you’ll see entire families parading by.
But the city of San Diego wants to destroy this picture for residents here, robbing them of all they have worked toward. The proposed University Community Plan Update could turn the community into a congested, unrecognizable metropolis by more than tripling the housing density, from approximately 27,000 existing housing units to 83,000, without thought to the fact we simply don’t have the space nor the corresponding infrastructure needed to support such a population increase.
The city’s utopian vision of University City fails to recognize it is already a well-planned, built-out community. City officials haven’t offered a means to add or widen existing roadways, nor provide additional parks and recreation centers, schools, libraries, aquatic complexes, fire and police stations, water and sewer service, and open space. They can’t, because there is no more undeveloped land left here to develop or otherwise use.
The city has not offered any solutions to the traffic gridlock the increased density will cause for residents merely trying to get in and out of their own neighborhoods. Officials seem to believe that everyone here will suddenly begin using public transportation or riding their bikes. The view is not only unreasonable but also quite comical when you visualize people trying to transport their 40-pound bags of soil or fertilizer, or multiple bags of groceries, on a bus or bicycle. Most UC San Diego students I am familiar with in south University City use their cars since taking the bus and trolley to and from the campus is a 45-minute-plus haul each way.
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Bonnie Kutch is a retired public relations professional who has owned a home in south University City since 2016.
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