Lisa Mortensen was sent a holiday greeting recently from Congressmember Scott Peters. Here’s her holiday greeting back and response.
By Lisa Mortensen
Hello Congressman Peters:
Happy New Year and thank you for your kind email of holiday wishes and appreciation of my community activism and dialogue with your office. Your email was timely since I was going to reach out to your office regarding the NAVWAR project.
A brief recap on the background of this project which became known to the citizens of San Diego was in 2021. At that time the Navy did a public engagement campaign asking for feedback and a selection of one of 4 different project designs. The community overwhelmingly chose the least detrimental plan which was plan 1. The reason why I say ‘least detrimental’ was because countywide, citizens spoke out in opposition to this high-density, high-rise megalopolis project which would wall-off access for those coming westbound on highway 8 or northbound/southbound on highway 5 to the airport and beaches.
During the spring and summer of 2021, the Navy orchestrated public outreach and feedback with virtual meetings that were well-attended. There were many cogent suggestions such as this government land be set aside for military housing and public park with ‘non-profit’ oriented retail. We expected the Navy to provide affordable military housing for its active-duty personnel. We also questioned the Navy’s reasoning of having private high-rise residential and hotel use surrounding a top security building which seemed to be a major breach to secure such a highly sensitive facility. Which is why we believed the Navy should have considered our options to rebuild a state-of-the-art top-security building to house the SPAWAR systems and secure the surrounding area of the building with government housing.
In the spring/summer of 2021, we had a signature gathering campaign to stop the 4-plan proposal and received thousands of signatures on our petition drive on the ‘No on NAVWAR’ campaign. We also hired Delano and Delano legal counsel who sent the Navy, Mayor Gloria, all Councilmembers, and your office the attached letter. In addition, I have included herewith SOHO’s 2021 evaluation letter.
Late summer 2021, we submitted the attached letters, the petition signatures (several thousand) and a cover letter of the aforementioned summation to support the citizens’ proposal in a package that was hand-delivered to the Navy’s liaison office which was the lead department handling the public feedback. In addition, during the spring and summer 2021, the liaison office received numerous emails from citizens countywide opposing this project.
Fast forward to today and this recent news of the NAVWAR project being awarded to for-profit developer, Manchester development company that proposes 8,900-unit residential units (no discussion of affordability), a million square feet of commercial space, two high rise hotels and no mention of public space. (See this.)
So basically, the Navy is giving away its land to a for-profit developer that appears to be the sole beneficiary of this land transaction.
I have also included information about the nearby community and what is taking place currently since 2021. Across the street from the proposed NAVWAR site there are several buildings under construction called Bevel apartments that take up the former Midway Post Office site. This large parcel faces Barnett Street and Midway Drive, There appears to be several thousand units under construction that extend from Barnet and surround the current satellite Midway Post Office.
My question for you and the Navy is when was the last time you came to this area and how will this creation of a new city within a several-block radius impact the infrastructure, demand for utility, keep the top-security buildings secured and quality of life for those coming to or through this area?
So, I propose a ‘near-site’ meeting to walk the area and take an up-close look at the possible impacts to this NAVWAR proposal. I will be accompanied by a few of the team members who helped lead our NAVWAR campaign.
Please have your scheduler reach out to me with some dates and we can pinpoint the meeting spot for our walking tour. This dialogue goes both ways, if the Navy can provide us a convincing argument for why this Manchester devised project was chosen over plan 1 or the community proposal. This would go a long way toward promoting transparency because currently, this does not sit well with the citizens throughout the county who feel we were locked out of discussion and updates. We are left wondering why the public outreach was not restarted and how did the Navy arrive at the selection of Manchester development? I believe you will agree it leaves us wondering; who’s minding the store to address these obvious and questionable conflicts.
Thank you, Scott, we look forward to hearing from you soon,
Lisa
Lisa L. Mortensen has been a homeowner since 1986 and community advocate since 1985. She was sent a holiday greeting recently by Congressmember Peters — see below.
I think this substack article describes this blog post and thr OB Rag pretty well
https://open.substack.com/pub/imightbewrong/p/how-did-blocking-stuff-become-left?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7ep61
Yeah, Jeff’s article is really full of misrepresentations which in a different context would be a bucket full of lies. Thanks for nothing Gordan and you’ve exposed yourself as a full blown YIMBY, or YIYBY (Yes In Your Back Yard (Not Mine))/
Gordon’s link above to the substack article by Jeff Maurer perfectly exemplifies YIMBY elitism, when Jeff describes 2 vibrant communities of color in Los Angeles as ‘precious slums’ and ‘monuments to urban neglect’ that apparently are in need of a ton of high rises. These new urban towers will be vastly market rate. So fears of gentrification are unfounded? YIMBYS have been and always will be shills for big developers and the tech industry. Their only accomplishment is to cynically latch onto affordable housing as a way to legitimize their selfish goals.
Ron appeared to forget that the Midway District is primarily commercial and industrial in nature…
Robert appears to have forgotten that there are thousands of actual humans who live in the Midway District.
“My question for you and the Navy is when was the last time you came to this area and how will this creation of a new city within a several-block radius impact the infrastructure, demand for utility, keep the top-security buildings secured and quality of life for those coming to or through this area?”
Good question Lisa, if only the Navy was in the process of doing an Environmental Impact Review to determine such things… wait… they are.
In the grand scheme of scheme of things, Ms. Mortensen seems to forget that we are not in a traffic crisis, we are not in a view crisis, we are not in a strip club crisis, and we are not in a decaying industrial building crisis. We are first and foremost in a housing crisis, and this project provides 8,900 units in close proximity to public transit. It serves the city, and the navy, far better than a handful of decaying aircraft hangars.
Robert, I’ve probably told you this before, but no, we’re not in a housing crisis — as you allege — but in an affordable housing crisis. BIG Dif, Robert. Lisa is asking the right questions and you are not — which means you’re either an apologist for Peters or are in the vein of Circulate San Diego, that group masquerading as an environmental organization but in truth is a lobbying arm of the development industry. So? Which is it?
I think that substack.com piece was a a real waste of a few minutes.
Ah Robert, yet another YIMBY utopianist. Just build build build and everything will sort itself out. All these new residents will, of course, take public transportation. All these new units will, of course, bring down the cost of housing. This is YIMBY naivety at its most shrill.
> “All these new residents will, of course, take public transportation. All these new units will, of course, bring down the cost of housing”
Unironically this is what will happen, as it has happened in every other city that has done so.
Not true, just the opposite. If it was true, New York City would be the cheapest place in the country to live.
Excellent letter, very well written.
Sadly, I am not at all surprised at this outcome. The military is notorious for lip service. They will do what they want to do after pretending to listen to the public. All they cared about was their new building that Manchester will build for them and hand over the keys completed, no muss no fuss. What Manchester does with the rest of the property does not concern the military.
Apropos to the discussion about the toxic dump on Mission Bay, the NAVWAR site is another serious mess. It will be interesting to see who pays for the remediation, and it will be big.