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SignOnSanDiego.com
News Metro By Luis Monteagudo
Jr. November 3, 2002 County officials want to move forward on a project to beautify their stretch of the downtown waterfront with a plan that would narrow a stretch of Harbor Drive to create more space for a park. The county Board of Supervisors voted last week on proposals involving the North Embarcadero plan, a long-talked-about project to renovate a 260-acre chunk of San Diego's waterfront. That project has been worked on for almost six years by the North Embarcadero Alliance, which has members from the county, the city of San Diego, the Centre City Development Corp., the San Diego Unified Port District and the Navy. Alliance members are meeting Thursday to hear each agency's priorities and its financing plan for its portion of the project. The county has already provided $7.6 million for the project. Supervisors Greg Cox and Ron Roberts, the county's representatives to the alliance, asked their colleagues to recommend that the county money be used on their portion of the Embarcadero project and that it be done first. That portion, in front of the County Administration Center, would include a pedestrian esplanade and landscaping. Ideally, that would be done at the same time as work on a park county officials want to build around their center, Roberts said. Supervisors also voted to extend the eastern curb of Harbor Drive, between Ash and Grape streets, by 36 feet. The Embarcadero project calls for the extension of the western curb of Harbor Drive. The eastern extension would allow more grass and trees in an area that will connect to the county park and will provide better views of the waterfront, said Cox and Roberts. The extension would narrow Harbor Drive in that area from five lanes to one northbound lane and two southbound lanes. It would also eliminate 54 parking spaces in front of the county administration center. Those spaces would be replaced by an equal number of spaces, probably in a proposed county parking structure two blocks east, at the edge of Little Italy. The supervisors proposals still have to be approved by the North Embarcadero Alliance. Cox said he was unsure when work could begin if the alliance grants that approval, but he said starting construction next year would be ambitious.
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