City Council President Todd Gloria asked City Attorney Jan Goldsmith today to present legal and legislative options to resuscitate the plan to keep vehicles out of the center of Balboa Park.
Balboa Park in San Diego (Credit: Wikimedia)
The proposal, adopted by the City Council last year and backed financially by Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs, was thrown out last week by San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor.
Read: Balboa Park bridge project stalls.
In a lawsuit filed by preservationists who opposed Jacobs’ plan, the judge ruled that the City Council violated the municipal code in finding there was no reasonable beneficial use of Balboa Park without the project.
Such a finding is required to alter a facility that’s designated a historic resource.
Gloria said the SOHO lawsuit creates a situation where the city won’t be able to make any beneficial changes to Balboa Park until the laws are changed.
Boosters of the plan wanted to begin construction quickly so the Plaza de Panama and Plaza de California would be free of vehicles in time for the park’s 100th anniversary in 2015, in which a full year’s worth of events are being planned.
The Save Our Heritage Organisation objects to a proposed bridge that would carry traffic around the plazas and to a new paid parking garage to be built behind the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.
“I continue to support the Plaza de Panama Project as approved by the City Council, and am firmly convinced, as Judge Taylor was, that its benefits far outweighs its impacts, even in regard to protecting the park’s historic resources,” Gloria said.
“I am also firmly convinced that the city needs to fix the problem with its municipal code, as identified by Judge Taylor, or it may never be able to remove traffic and parking from the plaza,” he said.
Gloria said he looked forward to Goldsmith’s recommendations so the City Council could determine the “appropriate course of action.”
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