San Diego, CA – The San Diego City Council today rejected a proposal to rescind the resolution and ordinances related to the Barrio Logan Community Plan Update and instead placed the matter on a citywide ballot in June.

“The plan update was an open, transparent model for community-involved planning,” said Councilmember David Alvarez.  “I’m proud of the majority of the City Council who stood up to threats and bullying tactics by private industry. I put my trust in voters to see the referendum process for what it is: a greedy attempt to keep the status quo at the expense of hardworking residents and workers and an effort to hijack our community planning process.”

Barrio Logan’s Community Plan Update, approved by the City Council on Sept. 17, breaks a 30-year history of toxic land-use planning that allowed houses, parks and schools to intermingle with polluting industrial properties.  During the five-year open and transparent planning process, in response to concerns by maritime representatives, Councilmember Alvarez met repeatedly with various stakeholders and subsequently crafted a compromise in order to address the concerns raised and allow the plan update to move forward.   The City Council’s previous approval of the plan creates an important buffer between residents and industrial uses, including the shipyards and allows for Barrio Logan families to finally have a healthier community.

Maritime interests subsequently sought to defeat this plan through an aggressive and misleading referendum campaign.  “I’ve spoken to San Diego residents who were told by paid signature gatherers that 46,000 jobs will be lost, when the plan actually increases jobs by increasing prime industrial land, giving certainty to developers and businesses that want to locate in the community, and reducing conflicts between residential and industrial areas,” said Alvarez.  “The most egregious lie told by signature gatherers is also the easiest to disprove: it is categorically false that all maritime business must leave under the plan, all existing businesses can stay and expand up to 20 percent.”

“Even more importantly, if special interests are allowed to derail this community plan, then every other community plan throughout the city will be threatened,” Alvarez continued.

The City Charter requires that the referendum be placed on the June 3 citywide primary election ballot.

Alvarez is the Councilmember for the Eighth Council District of the City of San Diego, which includes the communities of Barrio Logan, Egger Highlands, Grant Hill, Logan Heights, Memorial, Nestor, Ocean View Hills, Otay Mesa, San Ysidro, Sherman Heights, Stockton and the Tijuana River Valley.  He is currently the chair of the City Council’s Natural Resources and Culture Committee on the Environment.

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