What happened to the vision? A grand public gateway consisting of a continuous 10-acre park and gathering place at the foot of Broadway was promised to San Diegans in the Port of San Diego’s Master Plan (PMP). Now we have the old “bait and switch.”

 The waterfront is to serve as the City’s major open space, its park and its playground. We have an opportunity to create a great civic asset geared not just towards visitors, but to all San Diego residents by looking at cumulative impacts of all the recently approved projects including the Navy Broadway Complex site.

 Active faulting has been found in the North Embarcadero area near Harbor Drive and Pacific Highway. Since 2006, multiple signs of active faulting on the Navy Broadway Complex site still have yet to be addressed. The outstanding seismic issues and national Homeland Security concerns have not been resolved, as required by the California Geologic Survey. In fact, recently the Navy misrepresented a letter from the United States Geologic Survey (USGS), claiming that the federal government agency approved the Navy Broadway Complex fault investigation. No such approval has taken place.

 On July 2, 2009, the California Coastal Commission sent a letter to the Port that stated that the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan (NEVP) is not consistent with the certified Port Master Plan. The letter continued to say that, “while the NEVP should be used as guidance, the certified Port Master Plan is the standard of review by which all new development must be measured… It is not possible to achieve a comparable level or quality of public open space in a fragmented arrangement of sidewalks and setbacks than would exist in a large, continuous open space.”

 The California Coastal Commission is correct that an update to the Port’s Master Plan is required in light of the many development projects approved over the last two years including the Navy Broadway Complex and offsite parking, Lane Field North, Lane Field South, the B Street Pier Cruise Ship Terminal, the Broadway Cruise Ship Terminal, Rucco park, the Old Police Headquarters, the deletion of the 10-acre gateway park and the planned public park and open space on the Broadway Pier.

 An update to the Port of San Diego’s Master Plan is the perfect opportunity to confirm or deny active faulting on the Navy Broadway Complex. San Diegans, Navy personnel, and visitors deserve a safe, engineered, public waterfront that works for all.

Congressman Bob Filner