Councilman Unveils Plan for Bayfront Park

San Diego City Councilman Ron Roberts unveiled a broad proposal Thursday for a 16-acre bayfront park that includes a 5,000-seat amphitheater and floating stage, but eliminates the Broadway Pier as well as a proposed high-rise office building that are a key element of the Navy’s plan for its downtown base.

At a press conference Thursday morning, Roberts said the proposal was still “very much a concept” and added, “We need everyone’s cooperation.” The area, which he called Paseo Park, would be built on parcels of land now owned by the Navy and the San Diego Unified Port District.

The new park would be part of a plan first suggested in 1908 by urban planner John Nolen, who envisioned a “dramatic link” between a park on the bay at the foot of Broadway and a public plaza/civic center situated inland, Roberts said.

The updated plan being pushed by Roberts would connect the waterfront park with a new civic center planned at 12th Avenue in Centre City East. Broadway would be upgraded to make it more attractive to pedestrians and provide the “dramatic link” between the two sites. “It’s a new idea that’s about 81 years old,” Roberts said.

Sweeping Redevelopment Plan

The proposal calls for the Navy to contribute more than twice the amount of open space set aside in an updated and sweeping redevelopment plan announced by the Navy two months ago for its Broadway Complex project.

Persuading skeptical Navy officials to go along with the latest proposal for the valuable downtown acreage is one of the chief tasks now facing Roberts.

“We cannot endorse this concept at this point,” said Capt. Wayne Goodermoote, the Navy officer in charge of the Broadway Complex project. “We no longer have the commercial development. There are a lot of unknowns to this. What are the financial impacts?”

Under the Navy’s plan, a private developer would build two hotels on the southern half of the Navy land, near Seaport Village, and an office building on the northern end, near Broadway. In return, the developer would build a 24- to 26-story office building for the Navy just to the south of the private office building.

With the elimination of the private office building under Roberts’ plan, it is unclear whether the Navy can get sufficient money for its new building.

No Cost Estimates

Roberts said Thursday that there are no cost estimates for the project and suggested that the Navy could be compensated for its land through a lease agreement with the city or the Port District. The next step, Roberts said, will be to have each of the government entities appoint a representative to begin negotiations about financial arrangements and other matters.

Roberts was joined at the press conference Thursday by Ernest Hahn, chairman of the Centre City Planning Committee, and Louis Wolfsheimer, chairman of the Board of Port Commissioners, both of whom expressed support for the proposal.

Hahn said he had “high hopes” for the plan.

“We’re off and running with what could be one of the most important civic improvements in the history of San Diego,” Wolfsheimer said.

The new park would contain open space, landscaping, museums, an amphitheater facing San Diego Bay for concerts and the floating stage opposite the amphitheater. Another part of the plans calls for fountains shooting out of the bay behind the floating stage.

Broadway would be closed between Pacific Highway and Harbor Drive and the Navy property north of E Street would be cleared of the warehouse that is now there.

Roberts said Thursday that he decided to make the proposal public because the Navy was proceeding under the assumption that there was support for its plan announced in March, unaware of the alternative being developed. “I said, ‘Let’s put everything out on the table,’ ” Roberts said.