The folks at the Save Mission Trails applaud the San Diego Planning Commissioners for their diligence and the votes which opposed initiation of regulation changes to site the Quail Brush power plant. One more vote is needed on July 19th, 9 AM at the Planning Commission (PC) Hearing to finalize their opposition.
County residents are asked to immediately step-up written notes of opposition by sending each a message to the San Dieog Planning Commission, San Diego City Council and the California Energy Commission (CEC). (See this sample message). Residents are asked to their thoughts about why open space in the Mission Trails Design District of East Elliot is too valuable to convert to industrial uses. The Mission Trails Task Force will also be considering this issue on July 19th at 1 PM.
KEY MEETING!
San Diego Planning Commission – 9am, July 19th
City Admin Bldg, 202 C Street, 12th floor (downtown San Diego).
Topic: Initiation of a Community Plan amendment for rezoning from open space to industrial to approve siting the QB power plant. Come early, take the trolley, or carpool.
Meetings open to public. Public comment/participation is vital for the stewardship of our park! Power plant on the agenda for vote.
The Santee Power Plant, officially known as the Quail Brush Generation Project Power Plant, is to be built on the border of Mission Trails Park and Santee. Its placement is within San Diego. It sits right next to Mission Trails Park and the Santee community (its nearest neighbor would be West Hills High School). The noise and pollution will be substantial. The area is not zoned as industrial, yet officials may allow zoning changes to allow approval of this project. Mission Trails Park and all its history will be harmed by the noise, air pollution and visual blight.
West Hills High School is 845 yards from the proposed plant (less than 1/2 a mile).
“This is a Beautiful Place. Why would you want to ruin it by putting up a Power Plant?”
Ten year old speaks truth to power.
In a “David versus Goliath” moment, Barbara, a brave and poised ten-year-old, stands up before San Diego’s Planning Commissioners on June 28, 2012, to speak out against the Quail Brush Power Plant which is proposed to be constructed right alongside national bio-gem, Mission Trails Regional Park.
Sempra Energy/ SDG&E has awarded a contract to Cogentrix out of North Carolina to build a power plant featuring 11 100-foot smokestacks that would forever mar the beauty of Mission Trails, which features habitats and animals that exist nowhere else on the planet. This meeting was held to approve or oppose rezoning Open Space land to “Heavy Industrial.” Opponents of the power plant packed the room. The vote was 3-2 against initiating the rezoning process.
A majority vote of 4 was needed and therefore the session will be revisited on July 19, 2012. Ironically, a nay vote was made by a Commissioner whose last name is Smiley. Before voting, he commented that he saw nothing pristine or scenic about the proposed area. Those of us who frequent the park beg to differ and suggest that he actually visit Mission Trails before making another uninformed vote the next time.
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I don’t know how anyone could suggest that Mission Trails isn’t scenic or doesn’t provide an immensely valuable resource for both habitat and recreation. And the fact that the planning commission refused to even convert adjacent land to light residential use in the past but now wants to make it heavy industrial is mind boggling.
I haven’t been out more than a handful of times over the last few years, but when I was a kid in the early/mid-nineties I was out there a few times a month (I’m probably in the crowd somewhere watching these guys bash their brains out):
Preservationists don’t worry, the trails are all gone now to the best of my knowledge…
As someone who frequently mountain bikes in Mission Trails and who knows the park quite well, that park is a vital resource that we need to protect. The fires in 2003 and 2007 were bad enough for the park (you can still see some of the scars left behind even today). It must be preserved as a refuge for the public, though. It happens to be an incredible treasure for all San Diegans, and it would be tragic for this proposed power plant to be allowed to ruin it.
shocking…
PLEASE don’t pave paradise to put up a power plant/ parking lot!!!!!!
how about solar panels on everybody’s already developed roof? and school curriculums that enable our youth to understand, invent and maintain our own system of solar energy? and end dependance on private corporate control of our resources and land, now THAT would be modern and innovative…