A parking plan for Balboa Park

Balboa Park, the gem of San Diego, is a topic of much discussion lately. At issue is the idea of limiting the Plaza de Panama to an automobile-free zone. It's a worthy idea making the center of the park an entirely pedestrian-friendly plaza.

The main idea is to divert traffic from the Laurel Street Bridge to a tunnel passageway and the Organ Pavilion parking lot — and with that to build a pay-for-parking structure on the existing lot.

Irwin Jacobs of Qualcomm has offered to raise $25 million to fund the project. But as always happens, there is a lot of resistance and a few alternatives.

Here is another alternative. Use the East Mesa portion of Balboa Park for parking. This is the area east of Park Boulevard on the hill east of Florida Canyon just west of Balboa Park Golf Course. You can check it out on Google Maps. It is a fairly flat, large area, which when paved could easily hold 500 cars. Shuttles or the Old Town Trolley could ferry customers for a five-minute ride to the east side of the park near the San Diego Zoo or Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

Studies have shown that parking and associated traffic is a concern for many park visitors. But any idea regarding a pay-to-park pavilion is a nonstarter. No one wants to pay for parking in what was planned to be and should always be free to the public.

In 1998, the Legler Benbough Foundation, one of the major donors and decision makers in the park, offered a comprehensive analysis of what is needed, called “The Soul of San Diego: Keeping Balboa Park Magnificent in its Second Century.” This report details the results of surveys of park visitors and their uses of facilities and the many repairs and associated costs.

The plan mentions that the East Mesa is little used. In 1993, the city did an East Mesa Precise Plan, which envisioned returning the area to its natural state and removing the Florida Canyon road. Thankfully nothing was done to implement that plan. So why not a parking lot?

We have buses and shuttles to baseball and football games. And the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines uses shuttles from parking lots at Qualcomm and near the fairgrounds. So why not set up a shuttle system to be used as needed from East Mesa to a destination near the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center?

Further, if the city ever does build a downtown football stadium, or the Padres ever make it to the World Series, a parking lot on East Mesa would be needed and welcome. And East Mesa is only a 10-minute shuttle drive.

Another thing that occurs to me is that although there is a lot of planning and preparation for the 100th anniversary of Balboa Park, I don’t think it will bring that many tourists from around the world as it did in 1915.

It will be wonderful to see the gem of San Diego revitalized, and Jacobs is willing to make a generous donation to Balboa Park. How about spending some of the money on the easiest parking solution — East Mesa.