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When Alonzo Horton laid out Downtown San Diego’s street grid, it’s likely the prospect of a 40,000-seat or so baseball stadium never crossed his mind. But today, nearly 130 years later, Horton's design provides an instant traffic solution to planners of a ballpark in the eastern portion of the Centre City coming to be known as East Village.
"You have the entire street grid working to your benefit," says Peter Hall, president of the Centre City Development Corp. "Instead of putting all of the parking adjacent to the ballpark, urban ballparks tend to use interceptor lots on all sides. It is a lot easier to get in and a whole lot easier to get out."
At present, the surrounding streets could hustle 17,640 cars an hour away from the stadium. With some minor modifications that number increases to 21,960 vehicles per hour. Adding temporary lanes, i.e. using parking spaces on selected streets as travel lanes, pushes the total to 25,213 vehicles per hour. Fine tuning of traffic signals gets the hourly auto dispersal rate up to 32,778 cars.
Stadium planners and traffic analysts anticipate 13,000 cars parked near the ballpark on sell-out days. On those most congested days, every fan would be out of traffic and on the freeway within 30 minutes of a game's end. And that’s if they all chose to leave at game's end. The experiences of other urban ballparks show that, because there are other activities, fans tend to arrive in the area earlier and stick around later.
With the 18,500 spaces at Qualcomm Stadium exiting principally onto Friars Road, a full-house of 60,000-plus takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to exit.
Like the "Q" can now count on the trolley to transport fans — the light rail carried 10-to-13 percent of the Charger's gate for the team's last three home games — so too would an East Village ballpark. And the system may work even better.
Qualcomm Stadium's trolley station is state of the art with two tracks to park loading red cars. But the trains all head out in the same direction, west. Peter Tereschuck, vice president of operations for the Metropolitan Transportation Development Board, notes that the Downtown alignment presents other possibilities. For example, fans heading back toward Mission Valley could catch a trolley on the Bayside Line, while those heading south and east could walk over to the MTDB station and board a trolley heading toward La Mesa or San Ysidro. "(At Qualcomm) we can move anywhere from 5,000 to 9,000 people per hour," Tereschuck says. With the proper station enhancements, those numbers, he says, might be doubled for a Downtown ballpark.
Serving Downtown are three freeways, State Route 94, Highway 163 and Interstate 5 with its multiple exits and entrances. Most baseball games end at about 9:30 p.m., a time when traffic is light. The freeways appear to have plenty of capacity to handle baseball crowds. For example, at their peak hours, I-5 at Sixth Avenue is handling 17,300 vehicles per hour, SR-94 at its terminus in Downtown is handling 9,000 and Highway 163 at 11th Avenue is at 2,250 vehicles.
Routes are plentiful to and from the proposed East Village ballpark that would sit roughly on a site bounded by Ninth Avenue, K Street, 12th Avenue and Imperial Avenue.
Here's just a sampling of ways commuters could access the stadium and the collection of new and existing lots expected to handle the parking chores:
Interstate 5 South
From Pacific Beach to North County, I-5 drivers would take the 10th Avenue exit. The more adventurous could take Front Street and cut over to Sixth or Eighth avenues, or take Front down to Harbor Drive.
Interstate 5 North
From National City to Mexico, fans would take I-5 to a reconfigured Imperial Avenue exit and pull into a new 1,000-car surface lot for tailgating or park in a structure.
State Route 94 West
From Lemon Grove to Rancho San Diego and El Cajon, motorists would take SR-94 into Downtown where the freeway turns into F Street. From there the choice on which street to turn left would depend on whether surface or structure parking were preferable.
Interstate 8 West
From La Mesa on in, fans closer to I-8 than SR-94 would head west to Highway 163 and take it south into Downtown and onto 10th Avenue.
Interstate 805 South
From Kearny Mesa to UTC, motorists would drive I-805 to Highway 163 south and take it into Downtown and onto 10th Avenue.
Interstate 805 North
From Eastlake to Paradise Hills, motorists would take I-805 north and then turn onto SR-94 west.
If the Padres build a new baseball park in East Village, the least of the problems is traffic congestion. As the above diagram shows, the Downtown grid allows numerous exit and entrance options. One key is a realigned Imperial Avenue, which would handle traffic off Interstate 5, pass alongside the ballpark and connect with Harbor Drive. Tailgaters could party in a surface lot at 12th and Imperial avenues while lots and structures immediately surrounding the ballpark could hold 13,000 vehicles. Finally, we’re tentatively identifying the new park as Sempra Energy Field. That's the name Enova Corp. and Pacific Enterprises will take once their merger is final this summer. Most of the ballpark property belongs to SDG&E, an Enova subsidiary, and Sempra will be headquartered Downtown, bringing San Diego its only Fortune 300 company. It just seems natural.
And then there are lots of non-freeway choices. For example, from Point Loma a good route would be Harbor Drive east and south to Imperial; some National City residents might drive Harbor Drive north to Imperial; from Sports Arena a possibility is Pacific Highway to Harbor Drive; from Hillcrest it’s a downhill shot (don’t speed) on Sixth Avenue; from North Park a drive down Park Boulevard will lead to a newly aligned 12th Avenue; Golden Hill residents could take Pershing Drive to 16th Street or head down B Street to Eighth Avenue; while Coronadans have the option of riding the water taxi to a new landing area near Eighth Avenue. The trolley, with its tracks paralleling two sides of the proposed site, is very much in the ballpark picture — there's talk of building special lockers for picnickers to store their wares during games — and plans call for extending the Coaster from Oceanside down to Imperial on game days.
Of course Downtown residents, or any of the 75,000 people who work in the area during the week, could choose to walk. The Padres anticipate 20 percent of any given crowd will hail from Downtown. If the team's average attendance is 30,000, that would be 6,000 pedestrians per game, 8 percent of the urban core's workforce.
For now, Peter Hall knows he still has his work cut out for him. Downtown may have 57,000 parking spaces, but it can be frustrating for visitors to find them. On that front, the city already has approved a $19 million plan for building new parking structures and improving signage. Ultimately, Hall knows there's only so far he can go in talking up mass transit, street grids and the urban experience. San Diegans are used to driving their cars to baseball games. With the exception of those who remember minor league baseball at Lane Field, commuting to a Downtown ballpark isn’t part of their memories.
"When I explain the advantages of a Downtown ballpark to people, I think they understand its logic; they understand the facts," Hall says. "But it doesn’t totally shift their opinion because it is not something they have experienced. In an abstract, you can say, 'Yeah, I understand how it works. But the fact is I am used to going down to the Q.'"
Paradoxically, Hall finds people are more familiar with Downtown than they realize.
"I talk to a lot of people who say 'I never go Downtown because of the traffic or parking,'" Hall says. "Then I ask them how often they eat in the Gaslamp Quarter. 'Three or four times a year,' they say. Ever go down to Seaport Village? 'Sure, about three times a year when friends or family are visiting.' Do you ever go to the Convention Center? 'Usually about once a year for an event.' They don’t realize they are coming down here because they don’t think of where they are going as 'Downtown.' They are going to a destination. They don’t realize that’s how all of Downtown works. Every place is a destination."
As would be a new ballpark.
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