The 6-year-old Plaza de Panama plan to get cars out of the center of Balboa Park faces a potential 88 percent cost increase that could take the bottom line from $40 million to as much as $75 million.

The City Council voted 8-1 Monday to spend up to $1 million to finalize design details and generate new cost estimates. The results are expected in November.

Qualcomm cofounder Irwin Jacobs proposed in 2010 removing cars and parking from the center of the park and building a bypass bridge off the Cabrillo Bridge that would lead to an 800-space garage south of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. The council approved the project in 2012 but then it had to overcome legal challenges.

A 2-acre park would be built on the garage roof, parking would be removed from the Plaza de California in front, as it has already been done in the Plaza de Panama in front of the San Diego Museum of Art. The Esplanade leading from El Prado to the organ pavilion would be closed to traffic and landscaping and other features added.


Katherine Johnston, the mayor’s director of public infrastructure, said the increased cost was due to various building code changes, such as storm-water control, higher wages required for city projects and a more competitive bidding environment.

“The Plaza de Panama plan will make Balboa Park safer, easier to get to and give us even more breathtaking sights to enjoy,” Johnston told the council.

But numerous speakers raised objections they lodged in 2012 that the plan would introduce paid parking into the park for the first time and harm the historic look of the west entrance to the park’s cultural center by virtue of what’s called “Centennial Bridge” — a nod to the 2015 centennial of the park’s Panama-California Exposition and its architectural heritage.

“This plan is absurd,” said David Lundin, president and founder of the Balboa Park Heritage Association. “It’s built on a foundation of made-up facts and it’s a wholly inappropriate design.”


Johnston said Jacobs’ Plaza de Panama Committee, which he chairs, is pledging to cover any city costs that would be capped at $45 million and paid back from parking revenues from the new garage at the city’s general fund. The committee has spent $14 million so far, including legal and planning costs, and is committing another $2.5 million to complete design documents. The committee previously pledged to raise $26 million to match the city’s original pledge, also $14 million, for the garage. The committee’s new commitment would take it to $30 million if $75 million is the ultimate cost.

Jim Kidrick, who heads the San Diego & Air Space Museum and chairs the Balboa Park United support group for the Jacobs plan, said the higher cost borne by the city likely reflects added costs for the garage and some of the linking roadways and landscaping, which Jacobs’ committee had previously indicated it would cover.

“We’re united in our support,’ Kidrick told the council. “It incentivizes philanthropists to invest in the park and community as a whole.

Plan defenders said parking remains a problem and they discounted the visual impact the new bypass bridge might have. However, Councilman David Alvarez, echoing arguments from plan opponent Bruce Coons from the Save Our Heritage Organisation, asked city staff to update the San Diego Zoo’s earlier promenade plan. Approved about 10 years ago, it would add hundreds more spaces in an underground garage along Park Boulevard and allow the zoo to expand onto its present lot. Johnston said a 2011 estimate put that project at $215 million with no financial plan yet adopted for its implementation.


Various park institution leaders urged the council to move forward with the plan, including Museum of Man CEO MIka Parzen, who said he witnesses a daily game of “Frogger” in the Plaza de California, as visitors barely avoid getting hit by motorists who are equally distracted by looking up at the California Tower.

Peter Ellsworth, president of Legler Foundation which is supporting the plan, said approval will signal more than just the another step on the way to implementing the Jacobs’ vision of a car-free park center.

“It’s a once in a life time opportunity to prove by this example that this city’s philanthropic community and all the stakeholders can work together to finally actually get something done in Balboa Park,” he said. “As a funder it’s clear to me that proving that this model works is essential if we hope to engage in widespread support to address this and other parks’ needs in the future.”

Council President Sherri Lightner cast the only “no” vote, saying new parking garages would not further the city’s climate action plan and a more innovative approach would be encourage experiments in driverless car services such as Uber.


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roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley