The San Diego City Council will vote Tuesday, April 13, whether or not to allow the San Diego Zoo to redevelop a 25-acre parking lot that is currently city parking. The development, officially called the Park Boulevard Promenade, would include a new underground parking structure, more animal exhibits and a new front entrance.

The expansion plan is a proposed amendment to the 1989 Balboa Park Master Plan, which prohibits development in the park. “We are seeking amendments to that,” said Christina Simmons, public relations manager for the zoo. “The Balboa Park Master Plan identified things that should be updated and changed in Balboa Park, and many of those things have yet to be completed. So one of those things that the groups that have been working with the San Diego Zoo have done is look at the things that still need to be completed and the things that still make sense now that all this time has passed. The Balboa Park Promenade is a recommendation to make some changes to that plan.”

In addition to the animal exhibits and a four-story underground parking structure built between Spanish Village and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, the zoo wants to construct a “linear park” along Park Boulevard that would extend the length of the zoo’s miniature train to accommodate the new exhibits. The new front entrance would be located in the area directly north of the Natural History Museum.

“The Park Boulevard Promenade is more than just the ability of the zoo to expand into its parking lot,” Simmons said. “It also is a plan that addresses expanding parking facilities in Balboa Park and making them more accessible to Balboa Park as a whole, and ties the San Diego Zoo in with Balboa Park a little bit more, so it is not so remote from the park.”

A bond issue from the city is under discussion top fund the redevelopment, but no groundwork regarding an exact sum will be laid until after the city council votes on the project.

The proposal has some community members upset. Members of Preserve Our Park, a group of residents interested in protecting and maintaining Balboa Park, will also speak at the April 13 city council meeting to offer alternative solutions to the zoo’s proposals.

“They started this a little over five years ago,” said Jay Hyde, a founding member of POP. “Five years ago they wanted to tear down the war memorial building and put in a parking structure, and we stopped that.” POP is not affiliated with the Balboa Park committee, Park and Recreation or the planning commission, although Hyde said he has spoken to them and to the city council on issues related to the park.

As an alternative to the proposed underground parking structure, POP suggests building a parking structure at Inspiration Point, an area of Balboa Park located at the intersection of Interstate 5 and Park Boulevard, that the Navy and Petco Park could also use for overflow parking. Hyde said the San Diego Symphony already uses the Inspiration Point area for additional parking, providing a shuttle to their downtown location.

“Our position is, let’s make some incremental, affordable moves,” Hyde said. “For about $2.5 million a year, you can have state-of-the-art shuttles… and you can move people anywhere you want in the park. … Let’s not give anybody in the park any reason to expand, period. … We gave [the zoo] over 1,800 acres in Escondido, and they still have 300 acres up there that they can do something with. My view is, let’s find an area outside of Balboa Park [to expand]. Balboa Park is precious – there is very little parkland.”

“Technically, the San Diego Zoo’s leasehold is not expanding,” Simmons said. “We would actually lose about five acres because we already lease the parking lot – we’re just asking to change its use. … The only area that the zoo is interested in moving into is land that’s part of our current leasehold. … It doesn’t actually end up being an expansion.”

“If you live anywhere near Richmond and Upas, you have a clear understanding of the hay trucks and trash trucks and everything that goes into the zoo, starting at 4:30 a.m.,” Hyde added. “They want to increase the entrance off of Richmond and put a 450-500 [space] parking lot back there, asphalting over Sheep and Goat Canyon. That impacts the neighbors tremendously. It causes a difficult situation for people living in that area – the Girl Scouts as well as Roosevelt Junior High School and the people living there. … In fact, Toni Atkins has come out against that, saying that that’s just not a good idea.”

Atkins was out of town and could not be reached for comment as of press time.

Hyde cited the 1965 state Quimby Act, which says that for every 1,000 people in an area, there should be five acres of parkland. “The communities that surround Balboa Park – Golden Hill, North Park, Uptown – today are short 400 acres of parkland. … Inner city people have a difficult time. You have a real problem trying to find space to put a park.”