At peak traffic hours on Genesee Avenue, cars are stacked
bumper to bumper, with red lights glaring and drivers’ tempers often reined in
on a short leash.
These hassles typify the growing need for improved traffic
flow in University City, and have led the San Diego City Council to make plans
to extend Regents Road through Rose Canyon Park. An 870-foot bridge over the
park would connect the north and south corridors of the city, adding an
additional access point that safety officials say is desperately needed.
“Basically, the mayor’s primary reason for recommending [the
Regents Road bridge] was emergency access and fire response,” said Madeleine
Baudoin, a policy analyst for City Councilman Scott Peters.
The only available access to University City is by way of
Genesee, and several reports indicate that the Regents Road bridge would
greatly speed up emergency response times to the area, Baudoin said. Plans for
the roadway have been developing for over a decade, plagued by false starts and
numerous protests over possible damages to Rose Canyon Park.
“The community really is split on it,” Baudoin said. “It was
a tough decision.”
Last year the city council studied seven different traffic
routes, ultimately choosing the Regents Road bridge as the preferred
alternative.
However, some
community groups see the bridge as detrimental to Rose Canyon Park, a site
where many children and adults enjoy morning runs and school field trips.
According to Debbie Knight, president of the group Friends of Rose Canyon, the
new road and subsequent bridge would be built directly through the park,
disrupting many facets of the natural environment.
“How attractive is it to have a nature walk next to a
high-speed road?” she said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California
Department of Fish and Game have both expressed concerns that the road will
disturb the area’s biological resources. Knight said that the canyon park is
the area’s only green belt, which connects to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
The Regional Water Quality Board has told the city that traffic pollutants may
also endanger the nearby water quality, because runoff from the park flows into
Mission Bay.
The city’s initial approval of the project led FRC and other
concerned community groups to sue the city last September. The San Diego
Superior Court ruled on Nov. 12 that the city must pay the groups’ legal fees,
a decision that Knight called a “general vindication” of her organization’s
effort.
The groups’ main problem with the report was the
misestimation of the bridge’s effect on the environment, according to Knight.
“Their environmental impact report was seriously, seriously
flawed,” she said.
As a result of the lawsuit, the city decided to develop a
new environmental impact report. Knight said she hopes the report will lead the
city to abandon its plans.
In September, the city council entered into a contract with
Project Design Consultants, the company initially hired to conduct the
preliminary analysis of the seven different traffic alternatives. The city
council allotted the company roughly $5 million for work on the Regents Road
bridge, in addition to the $3 million spent for its preliminary analysis.
However, environmentalists have met the duality of the
company’s tasks — both creating a final design and an environmental impact
report at the same time — with scrutiny.
The California Environmental Quality Act requires an
approved environmental impact report before design and construction plans are
finalized, while Caltrans prohibits agencies from creating a design before they
have completed the report. Knight said that the city is “putting the cart
before the horse” without regard for the consequences.
Baudoin, on the other hand, said that the two tasks are
inseparable.
“If you don’t have a project design, how can you have an
impact report?” she said.
Baudoin emphasized that while the company may be working on
both projects simultaneously, no construction will take place until the
finalized report is finished and approved.
The office of San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre has
repeatedly told the city council that it is in violation of California
government codes 1090 and 18700; both bylaws prohibit government officials and
consultants from entering into contracts and making governmental decisions when
they could have a common financial interest.
“PDC had both
participated in the shaping of its own resultant contract and influenced the
governmental decision to design and build the Regents Road bridge, from which
decision it stood to profit substantially through the expected follow-on
contract,” Aguirre said in a memo to the city council.
Earlier this year, Chief Deputy City Attorney Michael
Calabrese also sent a memo stating that the contract made with PDC back in 2003
for the analysis of different traffic alternatives does not cover any further work
on the Regents Road bridge.
Kevin Sullivan, an attorney hired by the city, said that he
does not see a conflict of interest after extensively studying past contracts
and meetings.
The finalized environmental impact report is not expected to
be finished until October 2009.
Nonetheless, community residents and officials agree that
conditions need to change to support the city’s traffic demands.
“We are doing the best we can to move forward,” Baudoin
said. “We are trying to do our best for the city.”
