National City May Hold Trump : Southeast Wins Narrow Victory in Highway Battle

In what San Diego City Councilman William Jones called a “49% victory” for Southeast San Diego, the state Transportation Commission on Thursday voted to reject proposals to build a highway through the middle of the community.

More than 150 Southeast residents made the 2 1/2-hour trip from San Diego to the Ontario Hilton to protest the plan to relieve projected traffic congestion from nearby National City by constructing California 252 along a corridor slated by the city and Southeast residents for redevelopment.

The freeway struggle, which has continued for more than a decade, has traditionally pitted National City’s pro-freeway attitude against the redevelopment efforts of city officials and Southeast community activists, who believe that the neighborhood is already laced with freeways, and that new businesses and jobs, not freeways, are what the neighborhood needs.

The commissioners decided by voice vote to declare their intention to sell the freeway corridor to the City of San Diego. But they placed a condition on the sale--that San Diego and National City negotiate an alternate solution to National City’s traffic problem by the time the commission meets again in August.

Though the San Diego contingent was pleased by the result, Jones, who represents the Southeast area, was more cautious.

“We’ve got a fight on our hands,” said Jones, referring to the prospect of negotiations with National City.

The Rev. Robert Ard, a community activist who is a Republican candidate for the Assembly, criticized the decision. He expressed concern that National City may now hold a trump card that could place any plans for redevelopment in a perpetual holding pattern. Ard held out little hope that National City will reach a mutually beneficial agreement with San Diego.

“I’m furious . . . they haven’t won anything. This really puts us back to where we were before. The masses of people don’t know what happened here today,” he said.

Freeway opponents have pointed out that the state would not have any money to build the freeway for nearly 10 years and that the now-vacant land could lie fallow for at least that long. They also fear that the project could be locked in jurisdictional problems for years, because the freeway cannot be built without the city’s approval, and the City Council recently reaffirmed its strong opposition to the project.

Assemblyman Pete Chacon (D-San Diego) told commissioners: “There’s no need to let a corridor lie fallow for a decade in wait for a freeway that may never be built. . . . We should choose people over pavement and free up 252 for Southeast redevelopment.”

Throughout the hearing, the majority of transportation commissioners sent a clear message that they also opposed construction of the freeway.

Even the project’s supporters, most of whom were from National City, appeared to be pushing much harder for a middle ground that would help relieve their worsening traffic congestion instead of asking the state to retain the right-of-way. At one point early in the proceedings, Commissioner Joe Duffel even made a motion to end the hearing before allowing freeway supporters to present their side.

“It appears to me that the people don’t want it and we don’t have any money . . . I would like to make a motion that we abandon the freeway and close the hearing,” he said, followed by a large round of applause from freeway opponents.

Other commissioners, however, expressed strong concerns about National City’s traffic problem and how it could be solved without a California 252. Commissioner Bruce Nestande expressed worry that, once the corridor was sold to San Diego, National City would be stuck with the cost of widening streets and other measures to accommodate the traffic flow, which studies show will increase roughly 38% by 2005.

“Who helps them with some of the traffic mitigation?” he asked.

Nestande also pointed out that all revenue from the commercial development planned for the corridor will go to San Diego and not National City, which will continue to suffer the traffic problems.

Commissioner William Bagley, who made the final motion, summarized the feelings of the Transportation Commission when he said: “We don’t want to keep the route, but we want National City to get some sort of mitigation if possible.”

Mike Dalla, a city councilman from National City who said that it could cost as much as $18 million to widen city streets, wanted more than that. Dalla said he was speaking on behalf of Chula Vista and Imperial Beach as well.

“The need for 252 is obvious . . . we believe that too much time, too much work, too much heartache has been invested in this project to just abandon it,” he said.

” . . . This is not an issue of National City versus San Diego. What this is is a local and regional transportation issue versus a local development issue.”

San Diego County Supervisor Brian Bilbray, who claimed there was “massive political pressure involved” in the issue but later expressed satisfaction with the outcome, said in his testimony: “We’re going to give up regional transportation because the local community wants everything. . . . It has not been the state that has refused to cooperate, it has been the city. I don’t think they should be rewarded for this.”

When the hearing was finally through, Verna Quinn, a longtime Southeast resident and community activist, said what was on the minds of many of her neighbors who came to Ontario as well as some freeway supporters: “This freeway’s caused me more gray hair than anything else.”