Plan for Shutting Black Mountain Road to Commuters to Get Environment Study

The proposed closing of a dirt road that has become a busy commuter route between inland Rancho Penasquitos and Interstate 5 will undergo an environmental review, the San Diego City Council decided Tuesday.

Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, whose district includes the Black Mountain Road route, agreed that an environmental analysis is necessary to determine whether the winding road should be closed. She stressed, however, that because of the lack of an efficient link between inland North County communities and the coast, she would support only a temporary closing of the road.

City planner Allen Holden said the shortcut is used by 1,700 commuters a day. If the route is closed, he said, most motorists will switch to Mira Mesa Boulevard, increasing congestion on that already crowded east-west route. Closing of the road would draw opposition from commuters and from two major nurseries along the route, he added.

“My personal feeling is that we should not close any east-west access,” Wolfsheimer said, “but, since the city attorney feels that we have a lot of liability from this road, I would move that we temporarily close it until we find the money to improve it or to fix up Carmel Valley Road” from I-15 to the coast.

Councilman Ed Struiksma also questioned the need for closing the road, pointing out that the Mira Mesa community “has been cooperative in trying to resolve the problems of surrounding communities” but questioning whether Mira Mesa Boulevard should be forced to “become a de facto Highway 56,” serving all inland commuters seeking a way to the coast and I-5.

Holden said the environmental review could take anywhere from six weeks to 20 weeks to complete.

He said the road, which traverses land in the city’s urban reserve not scheduled for development until after 1995, would cost $6.8 million to bring up to standard as a major thoroughfare.

Holden recommended that the funds be spent instead on building the long-sought Route 56 freeway between I-15 and I-5.

Closure of Black Mountain Road is being sought by residents of the Westwood subdivision in Rancho Penasquitos. Residential streets in the neighborhood have been turned into feeder streets for commuters seeking their way to the dirt road.

Public hearings and a community meeting will be held before the council votes on closing the road, Holden said.