POINT LOMA – Supporters of redeveloping the former Sports Arena area into 4,000-plus new housing units, parks and a 16,000-seat arena and entertainment center squared off against irate neighbors fearful of the massive project’s potential impacts at a feisty community forum on Aug. 9.
Hosted by State Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, the meeting at Pechanga Arena was held to answer public questions about the arena’s proposed transformation into a state-of-the-art regional entertainment facility.
The community discussion pitted labor unions supporting Midway Rising’s plans against United Communities, a grassroots collection of neighborhood activist groups citywide opposing the project.
United Communities has been campaigning aggressively against zoning over densification and against concentrating development along existing and planned mass transit. The neighborhood umbrella group is also strongly pushing to preserve the 30-foot coastal height construction limit. They’re warning that this project as proposed will only worsen existing infrastructure and traffic problems in Midway and beyond.
On Aug. 9, Weber Pierson defended Midway Rising’s plans during opening remarks.
“As a senator representing this area, it is important to me that we offer the opportunity to have a community conversation about this redevelopment,” she said. “The Midway Rising proposals offer a significant opportunity to bring new investment, jobs and economic benefits to an area that has been underutilized for far too long.
“The proposal would deliver much-needed housing, along with a new sports arena to replace Pechanga, and a range of improvements to the surrounding site.”
Midway Rising’s development team then gave an overview of the status of the proposed sports arena project, before answering public questions during a half-hour Q&A followed by public workshops held at viewing stations.
Cathy Kenton, chair of the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning group, kicked off public comment endorsing the large-scale project.
“We have worked together with the Midway Rising team for nearly four years now to bring this project to fruition,” she said “This project is pivotal to the community. It is pivotal to start the change that we envisioned when we approved the 2018 community-plan update.”
“This Midway Rising project is going to fully reconstruct the sports arena to finally give us the world-class sports facility that we deserve, and it also improves our environment by building brand new parks as well as upgrading our infrastructure by building new roads,” testified another project proponent.
Tense meeting
The meeting got testy at several points, with some audience members openly booing officials’ comments, which prompted officials to warn that rude behavior would not be tolerated. Tempers flared during Q&A when Eric Law, chair of the Community Planning Board representing the Peninsula, challenged the public meeting’s stated intent and the transparency of project proponents.
“You have never been to my planning board, never met with my people and have never answered our questions,” Law charged to audience applause.
“You have every opportunity to file a brief on the lack of mitigation of the traffic issues. What’s your plan?” asked Law, who then had the microphone briefly taken away from him.
Following a pause, Law continued, “There’s going to be 50,000 more people here, 20,000 more cars. You have done nothing to mitigate the traffic issues. What is your plan to mitigate the traffic flows for 50,000 people and 20,000 more cars on and off the Peninsula?”
Amy Restelli, who serves as the transportation coordinator handling traffic engineering for the Midway Rising team, responded to Law’s question.
“We need to not just have access for vehicles, but access for people who want to travel differently,” she answered. “Yes, there will be traffic that will be generated from this site. But a lot of people will want to travel differently to the site. We are going to be providing a lot of capacity, increasing intersection improvements to the major intersection that is access to the Peninsula as well. There are traffic improvements for that.”
Midway Rising’s long view
Developer Midway Rising’s long-term plans for re-imagining the 49-acre site at 3500 Sports Arena Blvd. call for construction of a new arena building with 4,200 apartment homes, 2,000 of which will be affordable units with the rest being market-rate. Plans are for the new proposed entertainment complex to have 14.5 acres of parks and open spaces along with pedestrian-friendly zones. Those plans also include 130,000 square feet of commercial space featuring retail shops and dining.
Weber Pierson authored SB 958, which detractors say is a political ploy to exempt Midway Rising from key requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. The bill specifies that increasing the height of a project’s buildings cannot, by itself, be considered a significant environmental impact under CEQA.
Weber Pierson maintains that SB 958 is not special-interest legislation, but rather is a broad-based housing tool to provide clarity for cities facing the housing crisis without eliminating necessary environmental reviews.
Earlier this year, the California Supreme Court rejected prior San Diego voter-approved measures to remove the 30-foot coastal height limit in Midway District. The court ruled the city had failed to adequately disclose the environmental impacts associated with taller buildings. At 77 feet tall, the existing arena was built six years before the current 30-foot maximum height restriction was put into place by the State Coastal Commission in the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan.
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