Controversial Project : National City and Southeast Still Split Over Freeway

On a recent drive through his community, National City Mayor Kile Morgan pointed proudly to a number of shopping centers.

“Looks pretty prosperous, doesn’t it?” he said with a big smile. “Couldn’t have happened without the freeways.”

In Morgan’s eyes, freeways are the salvation of National City, and a new one could be an elixir for its poor neighbor, Southeast San Diego.

Verna Quinn, a longtime Southeast San Diego resident and community activist, sees no salvation in freeways. She pointed out that four freeways in the heart of the Southeast already make travel difficult, keep residents apart and separate the area from the rest of the city. A fifth freeway, she said, would surely help the struggling community deteriorate beyond repair.

Quinn, who is white and has lived in Southeast for 23 years, said she’s convinced that the freeways in the predominantly black community have been used to block its progress.

“What they used to say in the ‘60s is that the freeways were used to keep us in our place. I used to think they were nuts. . . . I don’t think so anymore,” she said.

The differing opinions of Quinn and Morgan are part of the tug of war between Morgan and Southeast San Diego residents over the proposed construction of California 252, which would cut a six-lane route west to east through the heart of the Southeast neighborhood. The struggle, which has continued for more than a decade, pits National City’s increasing traffic congestion and pro-freeway attitude against the redevelopment efforts of city officials and Southeast community activists who believe that new businesses and jobs, not new freeways, are what the neighborhood needs.

Interstates 5, 15 and 805 and California 94 cut through Southeast San Diego.

“The people said ‘Enough is enough,’ ” said Reese Jarrett, executive vice president of Southeast Development Corp., the city’s redevelopment agency for the area.

Jarrett and city officials involved in the Southeast community are strongly opposed to the proposed 1.2-mile freeway, which by running between 43rd Street on the east and the I-15 connector on the west would link Interstates 5 and 805. They claim that 252 would snuff out remaining hopes to bring mixed residential, commercial and industrial development to the area. Officials such as Councilman William Jones who are dedicated to Southeast’s redevelopment see the vacant, 400-foot-wide corridor reserved for the new highway as the cornerstone of redevelopment.

Also, city officials add that California Highway 54, a west-to-east artery that is under construction several miles south of the proposed 252 route, will serve the same purpose and will not cut through Southeast. The long-simmering dispute could come to a head early next year, when state officials are to decide whether to sell the prospective corridor to the city, which would then redevelop it.

With the corridor’s purchase, “We can make this community whole again,” said Jones, who represents the Southeast.

But Morgan, mayor of National City, said he will continue to fight for 252. He claims he is not opposed to Southeast’s redevelopment, but contends that the freeway would bring jobs and business to the area and that redevelopment in Southeast is “null and void” if 252 is not built.

Various studies show traffic rapidly increasing on National City streets. A July review of options for the corridor by the San Diego Assn. of Governments (Sandag) shows that the highest traffic volumes in the Southeast are along the east-west arterials through National City. According to the study, travel demand through the corridor area is forecast to increase roughly 38% between 1984 and 2005.

Highway travel during the period is expected to increase by nearly 150,000 trips (a 32% increase), with trolley and bus ridership increasing by 40,000 trips or 160%.

The study also showed that if California 252 is not built, future traffic congestion in National City could become almost unmanageable.

“It’s (Highway 252) the only alternative,” Morgan said.

Highway 252 was first proposed in 1954 in the San Diego Metropolitan Transportation Study. By 1968, Caltrans had reached agreement for the freeway with both National City and San Diego.

There was progress--right of way had been acquired, environmental impact reports had been filed--until April, 1978, when, after intense pressure from Southeast residents and then-City Councilman Leon Williams, the city suddenly terminated its agreement with Caltrans over 252. By this time, the state had spent $11 million to bulldoze nearly 280 homes in the freeway’s path and relocate the affected families.

By 1980 it appeared that Highway 252 was dead. The state rescinded its route agreement in March, which prompted National City in June to file suit to force Caltrans and the California Transportation Commission to set aside the route rescission and abide by the prior agreements to build the roadway. But the suit was dismissed, and four years later the city issued a preliminary draft of the “Southeast San Diego Community Plan,” which called for housing, stores and light industry to be built in the vacant corridor.

But despite two lost lawsuits filed by Morgan and what appeared to be a victory by Southeast residents against the freeway, the fight continues and the freeway corridor lies empty except for scattered weeds, garbage and old pieces of furniture.

When Morgan looks at the land in the corridor, he remembers what a dismal place National City was 20 years ago. But when he gazes around Sweetwater Road and I-805, Morgan points proudly to the 7-year-old, $100-million Plaza Bonita shopping center. To the mayor, the large, modern plaza is a symbol of progress that never would have happened if easy access to nearby I-805 had not been provided. He thinks 252 would do the same for Southeast.

Rick Juarez, chief of staff for Jones, sees the situation differently.

Juarez said that it wouldn’t make sense to contemplate construction of the freeway again because there is “no city money, no state money” to build it for at least 5 to 10 years, and even then it would be in competition with other projects for a small amount of funds.

The Sandag study of 252 supports Juarez’s claims and says that in order to proceed with the construction of the freeway, a new agreement would have to be reached with the city. This would be highly unlikely since the San Diego City Council expressed its desire in February “not to enter into any freeway agreement with Caltrans for a Route 252 freeway.”

But none of this seems to bother Morgan.

“In 5 or 10 years is when we need this . . . the time doesn’t bother me,” he said.

Still, Juarez emphasized the importance of being able to redevelop the freeway corridor and said that half the area’s housing has already been rehabilitated. “It’s an opportunity for the community to pay for its own development,” he said.

He explained that part of the redevelopment plan entails using all taxes generated by new buildings in the area to pay back money used for the new development.

Both Juarez and Jarrett agree that now would be the perfect time for the city to purchase the land, because the Southeast Economic Development Corp. now has enough money to finance the purchase. The Sandag study listed the corridor purchase price at no more than $2.9 million.

Verna Quinn, who said that over the years she has seen the corridor’s housing fall into disrepair and has witnessed drug dealing there in broad daylight, agrees that the faster the redevelopment can occur, the better.

As a leader of the 20-year-old Southeast Planning Committee who has been fighting the freeway for almost that long, Quinn has a feel for what the city’s purchase of the corridor land could mean for the community. When the committee first started organizing to oppose the freeway, she recalled, “People laughed their heads off. . . . they said, ‘You’re dealing with the State of California here!’ ”