Crime, Vagrants Targeted in Plan for Balboa Park : Safety: Panel hears proposal to restore park’s appeal to public by dealing with crime and providing alternatives to encampments of homeless.

Worried that crime and the growing presence of the homeless have diminished Balboa Park’s appeal, a San Diego City Council committee Wednesday reviewed an ambitious plan to make the park safer and divert transients into enhanced social service programs.

The council’s Public Facilities and Recreation Committee unanimously directed city administrators to proceed with a long-awaited proposal viewed as a vehicle for redefining Balboa Park’s recreational and cultural priorities, as well as addressing pressing social needs that have raised concern over the 1,300-acre park’s safety.

Dubbed the “Heart of the City” plan, the proposal was developed by a 29-member task force spearheaded by Councilman John Hartley, whose 3rd District includes Balboa Park.

The genesis of the task force’s 10-month study, Hartley explained, was found in a thorny, two-part question that he, other city officials and civic leaders have grappled with for years.

“How do we make Balboa Park safer, and how do we reach out adequately to the homeless?” Hartley asked rhetorically. “That’s what this plan tries to answer.”

Among the dozens of proposals included in the task force’s 18-page report are plans to improve park safety by, among other things, increasing police visibility, establishing a citizens’ patrol, brightening outdoor lighting, eliminating transient camps, relocating feeding programs for the homeless, and possibly closing most of the park to automobile traffic at night to reduce prostitution and drug trafficking.

To discourage chronic offenders from repeating park crimes such as petty theft and assault--violations that now can be committed with relative impunity because of jail crowding--a trial 24-hour, seven-day-a-week court would be set up to permit the immediate arraignment of persons charged with misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.

Small regional health “sanctuaries” also would be established, where people could voluntarily receive alcohol or substance-abuse treatment as an alternative to jail.

In addition, at least 2 dozen homes owned by either the city or the San Diego Housing Commission would be rehabilitated for use as emergency shelters for women and homeless children.

The proposal also envisions creation of a “Friends of Balboa Park” committee whose members would raise funds and promote additional public use of the 123-year-old park, and staff volunteer patrols to direct the homeless and others to social or medical programs.

Though the plan probably would require city funds, the task force also recommended the development of a private endowment to support the park and its cultural activities.

“This is a way to reclaim Balboa Park for the people,” Hartley said. “The park is a jewel . . . but it’s been tarnished. We’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re just locating the gaps and finding someone with solutions to those gaps.”

Although council members responded enthusiastically to the proposal, they also acknowledged logistic, legal, political and economic obstacles.

The 24-hour court, for example, would require the financial assistance and cooperation of the county, as well as of judges, lawyers and support staff.

Councilman Bob Filner questioned the proposed volunteer patrols, saying he would need more specifics on “who’s roaming around the park with what authority” before he could support that idea.

And Councilwoman Judy McCarty, who chairs the public facilities panel, noted that the calls for increased police presence and the clearing of overgrown trees and shrubs--the latter to enhance visibility and remove transient camps--could draw a skeptical response from the Police Department and Sierra Club, respectively.

Another overriding concern, Hartley said, is that Balboa Park’s problems not be simply “pushed around” to other areas such as North Park or downtown as a result of the recommendations to relocate homeless feeding programs and divert people needing mental health or substance-abuse treatment to programs elsewhere.

Despite those hurdles, the council members made it clear that they regard Wednesday’s proposal as at least the beginning point for a dialogue on the park’s future and on methods for restructuring and improving some of the city’s social-welfare services.

Under the council panel’s action, officials in the city manager’s office will consult with the task force and other groups over the next two months, then report back on the feasibility and timing of the components in the plan.

The political, civic, religious and community leaders who served on the task force identified increased park safety as a top priority for any plan adopted.

Toward that end, the group recommended increasing the presence of security personnel throughout the park via more equestrian police patrols, establishment of a park ranger program, security booths in parking facilities, landscaping and lighting changes.

The Friends of Balboa Park patrols would “maintain a conspicuous presence” through teams of professionals and trained volunteers wearing “armbands or other distinctive clothing,” the task force’s report said.

By patrolling gathering spots for the homeless and drug users such as Morley Field and restrooms, the teams could direct people there to social and health programs, said task force member Alice Stark of the Uptown Interfaith Service Center.

The patrols and other public-safety proposals also are intended to alleviate realities and perceptions that cause many people to be “afraid to come to the park and participate in cultural arts programs,” added Ben McKesson, executive director of the San Diego Automotive Museum, one of the park’s more than 2 dozen cultural and recreational institutions.

“Think of this as a puzzle to solve,” Centre City Development Corp. board member Janay Kruger told the council panel in summarizing the report. “There are park pieces missing, public-safety pieces missing. . . . This can fill in some of those pieces.”