Diane
Coombs
Navy Broadway Complex Coalition
As we enter 2007, it is time for the citizens
of San Diego to declare that the 1992 vision for the 14+ acre
Navy Broadway Complex is not only out of date but efforts to
implement it have violated our laws and regulations.
For several decades, we have witnessed the
use of our public lands for walling off our waterfront. Only
a few areas remain for public use, access, views and enjoyment.
The Navy Broadway Complex lands, between Broadway, Harbor Drive
and Pacific Highway, which were given to the Navy in the 1920's
for military, not private speculative uses, offers us a chance
for an alternative vision. A vision meeting the needs of downtown
residents, tourists, and workers - all of whom will experience
a lack of park and cultural facilities if present plans are
implemented.
This alternative vision brings many benefits:
(1) eliminating a Navy facility on the site which is a likely
terrorist target; (2) providing needed cultural facilities such
as a new home for summer symphony; (3) increased economic benefits
for surrounding areas and tax rolls; (4) putting San Diego on
the competitive world marketplace map; and (5) an international
attraction. To quote Fred Kent, world renowned public space
planner: “If they say it can't happen - it is definitively
worth doing.”
Not only have we endured loss of our waterfront
in recent times, we have had the Navy take our limited and precious
Balboa Park lands for Navy Hospital. The promised benefits -
Inspiration Point Park - have yet to be realized decades later!
The Navy mission is to protect us, not to
engage in real estate transactions for which they have no qualifications.
They have operated in an atmosphere of secrecy, failed to comply
with laws, agreements and regulations as well as the requirements
of the outdated 1992 development agreement.
Today we are here to announce the filing by
the San Diego Navy Broadway Complex Coalition, a civil proceeding
in the U.S. District Court under the National Environmental
Policy Act, among other laws, to challenge the Navy's finding
(by Rear Admiral M.A. Handley on Nov 22, 2006) that there will
be no significant impact from implementation of that certain
development agreement for the Navy Broadway Complex in San Diego,
including the execution of one or more long term leases.
We are undertaking this action on behalf of
all San Diego residents with an interest in creating a new area
of our waterfront for public use, access and view. The Navy
Broadway Complex Coalition encourages all who share our vision
to contact their elected officials at all government levels,
local state and federal, seeking their assistance and appropriate
intervention. |
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Don
Wood
Navy Broadway Complex Coalition
This project is just one example of a very
disturbing effort by the Navy to undercut California's Tidelands
Public Trust Doctrine, which is enshrined in our state constitution.
Across the state, the Navy is attempting to use the federal
courts to remove public trust protection from state tidelands
it controls or leases, which would enable the Navy to then turn
the land over to private development interests.
Last Summer Assemblywoman Lori Saldana blew
the whistle on the Navy's efforts to privatize the 32 acre local
Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center near Lindbergh Field,
which it controls under a 50 year lease with the city. The Navy
convinced a federal court judge to overturn public tidelands
trust status for the property. In his ruling, the judge said
"The United States acquired this portion of the land free
of public trust restrictions, and the United States may now
covey this portion (of the property) to a private party."
In Concord, CA, the Navy disrupted a federal
Base Reuse and Conversion (BRAC) base reuse planning process
for conversion of the Concord Naval Weapons Center to civilian
use when it announced it is considering bypassing the local
government and the public, and simply trading the property to
a politically connected private developer in Baton Rouge, LA,
in return for unspecified future improvements to be made on
other naval facilities around the country. If this happens,
the local government and the public will be cut out of the base
reuse planning process and the developer can build anything
it wants on the property. Concord's congressional representatives
in Washington, D.C. are aggressively challenging this land grab
by the Navy and its private developer ally. We would like to
see San Diego's congressional delegation doing the same thing.
As you can see, the Navy Broadway Complex
redevelopment effort has statewide and national implications.
If the Navy is successful in converting this property into a
private development project, cutting the public out of the base
conversion planning process, it will be encouraged to do the
same thing with local naval bases all along the Pacific coast
and across the country. We need to stop this ugly trend here
and now. As American taxpayers, we cover all the operations
costs of the US Navy. We are paying them to fight our enemies
abroad and help protect us from terrorism at home. Our tax dollars
should not be misused to subsidize the Navy turning into real
estate speculators and turning all the California naval bases
into high-rise hotels and shopping malls. |
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Jeannette
Hartman
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club joins the Broadway Complex
Coalition in its assertion that the outdated environmental report
prepared in 1992 is both incomplete and inadequate to assess
the true impact of the huge development proposed for the Navy
Broadway Complex. The law requires preparation of a new environmental
assessment or an addendum to an existing assessment if conditions
pertaining to a development have changed.
The opinion provided by the City Attorney
and the CEQA appeals submitted to the City Council by members
of the public are in harmony that the pace of downtown development,
environmental regulations governing that development, and environmental
indicators affected by development such as water quality, air
quality and traffic level have all changed substantially since
1992. The City Attorney and the Broadway Complex Coalition are
also in harmony that construction of a Navy headquarters building
on the waterfront may pose an unacceptable risk to the public
from terrorist attack. It is an outrage to put the public at
risk so that Navy executives and their contractors can enjoy
a view of the waterfront.
We ask that Councilmember Peters lead the
Council in protecting the citizens of San Diego and the environment
in which we live by requiring an adequate and true environmental
assessment of the development proposed for the Navy Broadway
Complex.
The
investigation of the Navy Broadway Complex lease called by Congressman
Filner is both timely and needed. Here and elsewhere in California,
the US Navy is giving away valuable properties to developers
in exchange for construction services of considerably less value.
These are properties that should have gone through the Base
Realignment and Closure Process and the attendant public benefit.
The Navy should be obtaining construction services through its
normal procurement process rather than trading public land at
bargain basement prices. An investigation into the entire BRAC
process is necessary to halt the exploitation of public lands
by the Navy and its contractors. |
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