March, 2009 Update
Originally published in the March, 2009, Serra Mesa Observer
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Lawsuit Status
As part of the CEQA lawsuit process, a meeting is required to determine if resolution can be reached. This initial settlement meeting, held on February 23, included attorneys and representatives from the Serra Mesa Community Council, City of San Diego, and the developers. Legal technicalities were discussed, but the developer’s attorney also indicated that a Mitigated Negative Declaration (the environmental document used for the Palladium project) is hard to defend in a case like this. Resolution was not reached, and more meetings may be forthcoming. It is difficult to say at this point whether we may reach a settlement or we will go all the way to court, but we will definitely need to keep fighting this, and raising funds, into the spring and summer.
Fundraising Effort
During our door-to-door educational/fundraising effort, which kicked off on January 17, we have found 99+% of Serra Mesans are supportive of our efforts. Thanks to all of you who have shown your support by donating (over 200 people), given us words of encouragement, displaying signs and/or volunteering your time by going door-to-door or talking to your neighbors and friends. The generosity of donors includes one person at $1,000; 5 donors at $200-250; and 27 at $100-120. Large donations help tremendously with our fundraising effort.
We have met our first goal - $6,000 by February 20 - and are well on our way to meeting the second goal of $5,250 by March 20. Two additional payments are due during the summer.
Dubonnet Rallies Around Fundraising Campaign
The residents of Dubonnet, the street behind the Palladium site, have already donated over $900 to the cause and are planning a block-wide garage sale on March 14 as a fundraiser. If there are any other blocks in Serra Mesa who would like to do the same, SMCC will send out an email announcement about the sale.
Door-to-Door Campaign
Every weekend, volunteers are going door-to-door talking to people or leaving materials in different areas of Serra Mea from Mission Village to across I-805. We’ve been impressed by the willingness of people in all areas to support this effort. People have shown they are not just thinking about their own block, but are looking at this as an issue that affects all who reside in this community with increased traffic throughout Serra Mesa, a severe change to the neighborhood character, and the promise of more to come.
Please note that official volunteers will wear a “Shrink Palladium” badge and will give a receipt for any money that is donated.
When we go door-to-door we emphasize the following points:
- City Council approved Palladium: a 4 story high apartment complex surrounding a 6-level parking structure placed much closer to the curb and encompassing the area from the corner of Sandrock/Aero, location of the Bead Company, to Canyon Pottery (we show people the graphic in our brochure)
- City’s environmental study stated No for visual impact; Would you mark No considering the following: change from 1 level to 6 levels, closer to the curb, 10 times larger than average building on Aero, and the corner of the building will be located where the free right turn (pork chop) is located?
- Free right hand turn lane (pork chop) from Aero to Sandrock will be removed
- Another traffic signal will be installed on Aero
- City’s parking requirements are inadequate; since there’s no parking on Aero people will park on Serra Mesa streets
- City’s traffic engineer indicates that people from Palladium will access Mission Valley and the freeways by using Aero and Kearny Villa; we know differently: people are going to use Serra Mesa streets; yet, the traffic study only included Sandrock from Aero to Hammond and Haveteur Way
- City accepted a study conducted by the developer which indicates that multifamily housing units should be built along Aero between Sandrock and our new library; so this project sets a precedent; more apartments can be expected along Aero
- Your Community Council hired a lawyer who has been successful helping other community groups
- We’re sending a message that Serra Mesa’s concerns should not be ignored and need addressing
- We expect to win; our City Councilmember Donna Frye, who voted against the project, has stated “I don’t know of one lawsuit filed under CEQA where the community hasn’t been successful.”
- Do you have questions? Will you support us with a monetary contribution? Our goal is $35 per household.
What you can do
- If you have not already done so, please donate to this cause. A form is included in the Observer.
- If you have already donated but haven’t talked to your neighbors and friends, please encourage their donation. You can use the talking points listed above. Most of the committee volunteers work or go to school full-time and we are not able to talk to every resident in Serra Mesa. If each of the 200 people who have already donated would find two neighbors or friends to donate $35 each to this cause, we would have enough money to meet our summer payments. We understand that asking for a donation is hard to do, but this is a very worthy cause.
- If you’re interested in joining us to go door-to door, please contact us.
- Contact us if you would like to host a neighborhood information party. We have a PowerPoint presentation that we can show on your TV, and we can even lead the discussion.
- If you have email, send us your email address and we will keep you up-to-date on the latest information. Your email address is not given to anyone and only emails approved by SMCC will be sent to you.
We need your support to be successful and to ensure that the City listens to us and addresses our concerns.
Community Action Committee
Where have all the signs gone? Over 150 signs have mysteriously disappeared! Why are they being removed? It’s a crime to remove signs from private property. The Serra Mesa Community Council has filed a report with the San Diego Police Department. If you have any information regarding the missing signs, please call or email the Serra Mesa Community Council.
