SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — While a gondola to link Mira Mesa with job centers and transit hubs in University City and Sorrento Valley is getting a lot of attention, residents are raising significant concerns about San Diego's new proposed Master Plan for the large community.
“We see a plan here for lots and lots of housing, but no specifics on, if it’s going to be transit-oriented housing, what’s your plan to put the transit in before you fill up all these units?" said Bari Vaz, president of the Mira Mesa Town Council.
The Mira Mesa Master Plan update is part of San Diego's shift in strategy from large, single-family housing developments as part of urban sprawl, to redeveloping existing plots of land to allow for higher density housing. The idea is to make it easier for San Diegans to live, work, shop, and play in their own neighborhoods without needing to drive as often, creating more desperately-needed housing while also helping accomplish the City's climate action goals.
“How do we create an active street life to get people to want to be able to walk to a cafe, to shop at a neighborhood business? It really creates opportunities to create interesting places, rather than places we just drive to," City of San Diego Planning Department Deputy Director Tait Galloway told ABC 10News.
The plan would increase Mira Mesa's population between 30,000-50,000 residents by re-imagining the areas many outdoor shopping centers. In some, housing could replace mostly empty parking spaces. In others, housing could be built on top of existing commercial stores.
“We’ve run out of land and how do we grow in? How do we take advantage of transit? How do we take advantage of our existing infrastructure?" said Galloway.
One of the ideas being pitched to help transit would be new to San Diego: an aerial tramway, or gondola. The unusual suggestion would connect Mira Mesa to the job centers and mass transit available in UTC and Sorrento Valley without increasing the transit footprint on the ground.
A gondola would have the added benefit of being able to be built down and up the canyons between the areas, which is not practical for a new road. Galloway says the idea is growing in popularity in South America, but the only United States city he knew of with a similar project is Portland, Oregon.
“It could be potentially something that hasn’t been seen very much in the United States.”
Concerned residents say they can accept the new housing. But they say the plan gives no guarantees that the infrastructure to support that housing will be built before those thousands of new residents move in. That could exacerbate Mira Mesa's existing traffic woes and overwhelm other critical infrastructure, such as water and sewer systems.
“We don’t want this to start and then run into problems when you’ve added another 20 or 30 thousand people and you can’t get home in the afternoon," said Vaz.
City Councilmember Chris Cate, whose District 6 includes Mira Mesa, says he is in support of the overall concept the city is attempting to fulfill. But he shares the concerns about infrastructure.
“We’re fine with taking on the homes, but we need the infrastructure to support it. The previous plans have been guaranteed that the money will stay here in these communities to support those efforts. Moving forward, that may not be the case," Cate told ABC 10News.
Cate, who is termed out and will be leaving the council after the November election, says it may be up to residents to rally and put pressure on future city leaders to fund the transit and other infrastructure projects Mira Mesa will require. “These communities that we’re asking to take an these additional densities, we have to have infrastructure to support those new homes.”
Vaz is encouraging Mira Mesa residents to give the city and City Council public input now, while changes can still be made to the plan. “We need to get people engaged now and not ten years from now when all of a sudden the malls start sprouting apartment complexes and everybody wants to know when that got approved. Well, it’s now.”
The Mira Mesa Master Plan update is expected to be presented to the City Council for a vote by the end of the year.
