OB Planning Board takes proposal to remove street parking on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard out of Robb Field-area traffic plan

The Ocean Beach Planning Board voted unanimously at its December meeting to send back an extensive plan developed by its Transportation Committee to address consistent traffic congestion around Robb Field and Interstate 8, removing one of the most controversial aspects of the plan and asking the committee for further refinements before presenting it to the city of San Diego for potential adoption on its capital projects list.

The plan, titled Access OB, calls for a traffic circle or another “higher-performing” intersection improvement where I-8 meets Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. The Transportation Committee also included contentious items such as eliminating street parking on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and installing large parking garages around Robb Field and Dusty Rhodes Park.

In presenting the plan Dec. 2, committee chairman Tyler Martin said the impetus for the project are regular traffic snarls from people leaving Ocean Beach even when I-8 is clear.

“A lot of times when there’s congestion here, the freeways are empty,” Martin said. “In summer, when it’s later and you’re talking about 8:30, 9 o’clock and I see cars backed up and the interstate wide open, I just think ‘Oh my God.’”

Access OB, which is more than a year in the making, not only achieves a stated goal of the Ocean Beach Community Plan but also aligns with objectives of many of the various government agencies that will need to approve the new plan, according to Martin.

“All these agencies [four city, three state and two federal] that we’re going to need permits from, it’s substantially supported by all of their planning,” Martin said. “In fact, Caltrans [California Department of Transportation] has a goal of redesigning our state terminuses. And that’s exactly what [this] is.”

The main feature of the plan is a traffic circle or similar structure to keep traffic moving continually where the I-8 terminus connects to Sunset Cliffs Boulevard at the north entrance to OB adjacent to Robb Field.

Martin cited statistics from the most recent city traffic study for the area from 2005 to 2008 to demonstrate the site’s traffic load. With average daily trips, or ADTs, representing the number of total vehicles using a specific location, the study indicated that Sunset Cliffs Boulevard had 45,000 ADTs at Nimitz Boulevard and I-8, 37,000 at West Point Loma Boulevard, 28,000 at Long Branch Avenue and 15,000 at Newport Avenue.

“Over half your load is gone by the time you get to Newport Avenue,” Martin said. “That’s how many people are coming in here and going to Robb Field … Dog Beach, all of Newport, the residential.”

Highlighting statistics from other traffic studies, Martin indicated that a major intersection averages about 32 vehicle collisions annually, 12 of which result from left-hand turns. When a roundabout is added, the number of yearly collisions drops to eight, he said.

Though city engineers will make the final decision on what type of intersection changes to build, Martin maintained the goal is to transform the current traffic problems into a steady flow to help accommodate an additional 10,000 ADTs estimated in the Community Plan.

“If you change your intersection design, your road capacity will start ranking higher on the flow scale, even though the number of cars that may be counted goes up,” Martin said. “More cars does not always mean more congestion.”

In explaining the most controversial proposal of Access OB — elimination of street parking on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard to allow for left-turn lanes to help ease traffic backups — Martin presented city studies indicating that 83% of all collisions in OB between 2011 and 2021 occurred on that street, and 64% of those resulted in injuries.

Though Sunset Cliffs Boulevard contains 368 parking spaces, or about 5% of OB’s total, the loss would be more than compensated for by proposed parking structures near Robb Field, Martin asserted.

But pushback from Planning Board members led to the idea’s removal from the plan in a motion approved by the board.

Member Tracy Dezenzo cited information from a bicycling advocate that the removal of parked cars from roads increases vehicle speeds and hazards to cyclists.

“People are going to freak … out if you remove 300-some-odd spots,” Dezenzo said. “My question is, are we OK as a community with turning Sunset Cliffs Boulevard into a highway? Because essentially that’s what it’s going to be.”

According to the committee’s plan, three-story parking structures would be built at one or two current surface parking lots around Dusty Rhodes Park and would be connected to Robb Field by pedestrian bridges. A tunnel starting on the right side of northbound Sunset Cliffs Boulevard would divert traffic to the parking structures without interrupting the flow.

“The last thing I want [is] the first thing you see when coming into Ocean Beach are parking structures,” said board member Barb Guerra-Jankowski, who also expressed concern that parking garages would be a magnet for homeless people living in vans and campers.

Martin replied that the garages likely would have paid parking, be locked at night and run by a professional operator, thus deterring any homeless people.

He showed photos of actual parking garages decorated with architectural flourishes and landscaping that offer the additional benefit of reducing vehicle noise in the garage.

“We could also add water features,” Martin said. “It’s not just going to be the facade of it; we’re going to plant out from it and build the best … parking structure seen to man.”

Board member Greg Diamond, who was appointed earlier in the evening to fill a vacancy on the 12-member panel, argued that the location of the proposed parking structures would only serve the immediate vicinity.

“In my mind, putting parking structures in Robb Field would be great for Robb Field,” Diamond said. “But I don’t see people parking there to walk all the way to Newport [Avenue] or to walk all the way to the beach. It’s just too far. Maybe it’s still a good idea as part of the Robb Field redevelopment, but I don’t know that that helps prevent cars that are going into other places in OB.”

Member Chris Peregoy countered that adding a visitor center offering transport such as golf carts to OB attractions could make the garages viable for reducing traffic.

“It could even be a hub for tourists that are coming in,” Peregoy said. “They don’t need to come into town. They can park it in the structure and then there’s some kind of a visitor or tourist hub that helps guide them. Then it takes them into town.”

Martin agreed, noting that tourists in particular prefer organized transportation instead of driving aimlessly in unfamiliar neighborhoods.

“I think if it was marketed as a visitor parking structure, the visitor is more inclined to park there,” Martin said.

Board member Kevin Hastings found fault with the proposed tunnel, outlining the same troubles, and more, anticipated at a garage.

“It’s going to become a problem with flooding, vagrants, graffiti,” Hastings said. “It’s going to be a place that no one’s going to want to be.”

Because of the project’s scope, board member Chris Chalupsky argued that Access OB should be divided into at least two phases, which could make the plan more palatable for funding. His suggestion was incorporated into the board’s final motion.

Community input would be mandated if the plan materializes in a capital project, and Dezenzo recommended public outreach before submitting a final plan to the city. That suggestion also made it into the final motion.

“The first issue I have with this is that there’s been zero public outreach,” Dezenzo said. “This is a great plan and we’d love to have more community input into it before we send it anywhere. Once we start pushing this out to the community, they’re probably going to have a lot to say about it.”

Referring to a Robb Field renovation project already planned by the city, Planning Board Chairwoman Andrea Schlageter contended the proposed parking garages could be easily integrated into that project.

“I think this calls for butting up a little on the Robb Field improvements,” Schlageter said. “We could intervene, even though they already have plans at this point, to push them for a little bit more with the thought that it would be paid parking, revenue-generating and they would want to pay money into it. That’s the one part of this plan I could see moving forward.”

Based on costs of other city roundabouts and input from two of the county’s largest developers, Martin estimated the entire plan would cost $37 million in today’s money.

If Access OB is approved by the board, authorization from the mayor, a City Council member or the director of planning at the Development Services Department would be required for plans to be drafted by city engineers. Once designed, the plan would await opportunities for funding.

“The state should help on this because it’s the terminus of the interstate,” Martin said. “We should be able to access state funds for this so it’s not entirely out of our coffers.”