Save Our Heritage Organisation announced Monday it has sued the city of San Diego in Superior Court over the Balboa Park Plaza de Panama project.
"The lawsuit contends that there are other ways to resolve parking issues with fewer impacts to the natural and built environment, and so the California Environmental Quality Act requires the city either to implement such alternatives or to deny the project," said a statement from the organization. "Given every opportunity and despite great outcry from San Diego citizens and local, state, and national historic preservation experts, the city failed to do so and violated CEQA."
The lawsuit also states the project violates the city's municipal code and that the project's inclusion of a paid-parking garage is inconsistent with the California legislature's declaration that the park be "free and public."
"It is undisputed that the Jacobs plan would irreparably damage the iconic 1914 Cabrillo Bridge by cutting through its historic fabric for a new, freeway-off ramp style bypass bridge and road system," said Save Our Heritage Organisation's director, Bruce Coons. "It is SOHO's obligation to spearhead this litigation on behalf of the many thousands of San Diegans that object to this flawed proposal and whose concerns and suggestions were ignored by Mr. Jacobs, the Mayor and the City Council."
