It’s Time to Restore the Vision of a Downtown Bayfront Park

John Nolen, a turn-of-the-century urban planner, envisioned bringing San Diego’s two premier natural attractions, Balboa Park and the sea, into “direct and pleasant relation.” He suggested parks, gardens, a museum and an aquarium at the bay and an inland civic center, all connected to Balboa Park by a “suitable” parkway or boulevard.

Time passed Nolen’s creative idea by. But San Diego City Councilman Ron Roberts, an architect by trade, thinks it’s time to fulfill Nolen’s dream.

Roberts recently called for a 16-acre park at the foot of Broadway, to form a ceremonial entrance to the city. The park would have an amphitheater facing the bay and would be surrounded by museums on the ground floors of adjacent buildings.

The bayfront park, which Roberts calls Paseo Park, would be “linked” to Balboa Park by landscaping along Broadway to the planned civic center at 12th Avenue and then up Park Boulevard.

Roberts’ plan is just conceptual, and the details will need full debate. But overall, it’s very promising. Open space is virtually nonexistent downtown. And what better place for a downtown park than along the waterfront, which is in danger of being walled off with high-rises?

Establishing museum space around the park also makes good sense. It would be an intelligent complement to Balboa Park, which cannot accommodate all of the museums and cultural institutions vying for space there. A bayfront museum complex would also reinforce the link between the park and the water.

But a waterfront park will take a good deal of cooperation among the city, the San Diego Unified Port District and the Navy, because the park would occupy Navy and Port District land.

Louis Wolfsheimer, chairman of the Board of Port Commissioners, has expressed enthusiastic support for the plan. But the Navy has been hesitant.

The Navy has plans for a large office-and-hotel complex on its property just south of Broadway, and Paseo Park would displace one of the high-rises in its plan, costing the Navy millions of dollars it proposes to use to pay for its headquarters.

In deference to Nolen’s vision, the Navy plan also includes a park, although it would cover only 5 acres. And the Navy has already scaled back its plans once, to address city concerns. So its reluctance to endorse Roberts’ proposal may be understandable.

But Roberts’ proposal for a 16-acre park is an improvement on the Navy’s plan, and we hope that, together, the Navy, the Port District and the city can come up with a compromise to help compensate the Navy.

This will take flexibility by all the parties. But the result could be a waterfront that the Navy and the city will be proud to call home.