From Chris Nielsen, University Community Planning Group (UCPG) Chair: Here are some of issues discussed at the UCPG for August and a look ahead at the September agenda.
Governor Drive Traffic Calming Subcommittee: A subcommittee meeting on a proposed Governor Drive was held on July 26. Over 80 people attended, including Joe LaCava, to listen to the opinions of community members. The meeting lasted about two hours and many people gave their opinion in brief comments. John Lee Evans gave a brief overview of the project, and Georgia Kayser, UCPG board member, gave a brief presentation on the concept of a road diet.
Kaitlyn Willoughby, representing Joe LaCava’s office, gave an overview from the Council office on the project. Two traffic studies along Governor Drive west of Genesee Avenue will be done, one in November, one after the first of the year, to measure traffic while school are operating. Specifically, traffic will be measured during drop off and pick up times at the schools along Governor. Once the November traffic study is complete, the UCPG subcommittee for this project will meet to discuss it, and the Council office has committed to a town hall meeting.
New Parks Master Plan Passed by Council: Council passed a new Parks Master Plan, 8 – 1 (Cate: No) at its meeting on August 3rd. Joe LaCava was instrumental in getting amendments passed that strengthen the MHPA/MSCP by conducting an audit of the MHPA and considering MHPA/MSCP obligations prior to a revision of the city Trails Master Plan.
Smart Signalization Genesee Ave: Alexandria has proposed a series of traffic flow improvements along Genesee Ave extending from I-5 south to Nobel Drive. The project is in its conceptual stage and will be coordinated with the city and UC San Diego’s smart signalization project set for La Jolla Village Drive and Regents Road between Nobel and Genesee. These steps include smart traffic signals, autonomous shuttles, transit access, secondary access to Campus Point Drive, and a possible extension of traffic “storage lane”’ accessing I-5 at Genesee.
CIP projects for the County CIP list: We have submitted our City CIP list to the County as examples of the type of capital improvement project we would like to see in our planning area. Amanda Berry from Supervisor Lawson-Remer’s office gave a brief presentation on the County CIP list.
Housing Bills in the CA Legislature / ADUs: Christopher “Stropher” Vallejo from Sen. Atkins office gave a brief presentation on housing bills in the Senate. There are many “small” bills in the Senate and Assembly addressing housing issues from data collection to employee housing, but it was clear that a main concern was two measures, SB9 (Atkins), and SB10 (Wiener). It became clear that the current City of San Diego ADU regulations go far beyond state provisions that primarily establish the minimum cities must do, rather than the maximum cities may do.
- SB9 requires cities to permit a lot-split of a parcel into two parcels, with some restrictions, which would allow two houses and two ADUs in a single-family zoned parcel. See “SB9 Analysis” for details at 202120220 – SB9_Assembly Appropriations
- SB10 permits (but does not require) cities to allow up to 10 units on a parcel if it is in a “transit rich” zone or under other circumstances. See “SB10 Analysis” for details at 202120220 – SB10_Assembly Floor Analysis
Council Redistricting: Redrawing council district boundaries is underway by the City Redistricting Commission. The UCPG passed a resolution by a vote of 7 Yes, 2 No, and 2 Abstain asking that the UC Plan Area be kept intact, that the UC Plan Area be kept in District One, and that the current composition of District One be maintained if possible. Census data formatted to be useful in redistricting will be available in the next 7-10 days. The Redistricting Commission meets every third Thursday of the month at 3PM.
In-Person Meetings: We are currently authorized to meet virtually until 30 September. September’s UCPG meeting will be virtual by Zoom. It is unlikely that the UCPG will resume in-person meetings while COVID variants are still significant health threats.
September at the UCPG / Plan Update Subcommittee:
- The next plan update subcommittee meeting will be Tuesday September 21 at a new time of 6:30PM to 8:30PM. Katie Witherspoon will lead a discussion about the Online Community Engagement Tool to be used to survey the community, starting in October. How the questions are framed will clearly be important.
- Next month’s agenda will feature a presentation by David Castro from Supervisor Lawson-Remer’s office on the office of Evaluation, Performance, and Analytics (OEPA), a new approach to county decision making.
- Katie Witherspoon will present an information item on “Blueprint San Diego”.
- SANDAG and CALTRANS will present an information item on the Coast, Canyons, and Trails Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan.
- We will have a brief follow-on presentation from Rebecca Robinson Wood on her land use proposal heard at the UCPG in July.
For related posts, visit https://www.universitycitynews.org/category/ucpg/
