Local activists have scored a victory in their fight to make the Port of San Diego follow through with plans to build a large park on the Embarcadero. The Coastal Commission today agreed to hold a public hearing in San Diego on the issue.
The Port’s Master Plan calls for a large oval shaped park where Broadway meet Harbor Drive downtown. But plans submitted to the Coastal Commission had a concrete plaza instead of the park. Rather than approving the Port’s plans the Commission decided to study the issue more. The Port’s Ron Powell says the decision is disappointing. But he said the Port should have been more upfront about the plan.
“We should have officially dropped it at a public meeting. We should have let people weigh in and say what they wanted to say about it and then made our case to show why it doesn’t work and why it’s not workable and we should have dropped it earlier,” he said.
Powell says the park was a conceptual idea that just doesn’t work on a practical level. Activists say they’ll continue to fight in court against Port projects they say aren’t in the public’s best interest.
