Commentary : A Nowhere Road for $40 Million : Transportation: Funds for the planned extension of Jackson Drive would be better spent on needed road repairs in neighborhoods, which was the intention of Proposition A.

Two years ago, San Diego taxpayers dug deeper into their pockets to fund a half-cent sales tax for needed transportation improvements. Now a substantial portion of those funds are being siphoned into an unrequired, costly, park-disfiguring road called the Jackson Drive extension; and most citizens know next to nothing about it.

How could they? The extension has been little publicized, and it was not included on the 1987 Proposition A ballot list of major road projects to be funded. Instead, the road was inserted by San Diego City Councilwoman Judy McCarty and a developer-backed lobby, with the assent of local community councils who were told it would reduce traffic on their residential streets and provide a convenient link to the future extension of California 52. California 52, now in the final planning stages, will extend eastward from Tierrasanta to Santee, where it will connect with future California 125, running from Santee south to Interstate 8.

The completion of Californias 52 and 125 are vital additions to the regional road system, and will help relieve overcrowded arteries in the Allied Gardens, Del Cerro and San Carlos areas. But a recent study by the San Diego Assn. of Governments concluded that the proposed Jackson Drive extension was not essential and would divert “very few trips from the surrounding street network.”

On the contrary, the extension could increase traffic congestion, noise and air pollution in the San Carlos area (where it would tie in to the existing Jackson Drive), by inducing motorists to cut through the community on their way to and from La Mesa, Grossmont Center and points east.

Citing traffic and safety concerns, the adjacent community of Tierrasanta recently persuaded the City Council to scotch a planned connection between Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and the proposed extension. This connection was considered a major benefit of the project. Its deletion makes the benefit/cost ratio for the Jackson Drive extension even worse. And with benefits so paltry, what are the costs? Astronomical.

The latest estimate for the road is $40 million and rising. This figure does not include more than $6 million required for the interchange with California 52, nor the money that the city has already poured into studies. These millions of dollars could be much better spent in neighborhoods throughout the city on necessary street improvements such as resurfacing, road widening, pothole repair and new traffic signals.

Indeed, that’s how the city’s local Proposition A funds were meant to be used. Instead, over the next five years, the single road extension of less than 3 miles would devour at least one-third of the entire local allotment of funds, thus delaying dozens of important projects. In an era when the City Council is grappling with ever-shrinking budgets and ever-growing demands for municipal services, and when calls for further tax hikes fill the air, spending this kind of money to build an unnecessary road for the convenience of relatively few people surely is unwarranted.

Beyond the extension’s impracticality and costliness lie critical environmental concerns. The road would cut a wide swath across the west side of Mission Trails Regional Park, one of the last sizable expanses of open space in urban San Diego County and one of the largest urban parks in the United States. Its 5,700 acres serve as a sanctuary for all San Diegans who seek to escape the commotion, crowds and pollution of the city--a large lake, steep mountains, canyons, wildlife and wildflowers abound.

I love to walk from the current dead end of Jackson Drive, down along a dirt road into the heart of Mission Gorge, boulder hop across the usually shallow San Diego River and then head up a short, steep trail to a lovely secluded valley north of the gorge. Here, the configuration of the surrounding uplands blocks out the sights and sounds of civilization. It’s like being in a time warp, back 300 years, to an age when Indians ground acorns under the live oak trees (rock mortars in the valley reveal their earlier presence). Red-tailed hawks soar silently overhead, and the only sounds heard are the murmuring creek, birdsong and the soothing rustle of tree leaves in the breeze. This stillness would be shattered by the Jackson Drive extension.

It’s taken years, and millions of dollars, to acquire this precious open space. In the latest acquisition, $8.2 million was spent to add 620 acres to the northwest corner of the park. Unfortunately, this land lies directly in the path of the proposed four-lane extension with a design speed of 55 m.p.h.

Is this how taxpayers envisioned their dearly given open space funds would be used?

An exorbitantly expensive bridge would be required to span the San Diego River and sheer slopes of the gorge. Its construction would disturb scarce riparian habitat, where the endangered least Bell’s vireo and unnumbered other species reside. The bridge would act as a monumental sundial, casting a gloomy shadow over the gorge throughout the day. Without question, the bridge would despoil the beautiful natural character of the gorge and its current sunbright atmosphere.

Past the bridge, the extension would segment an area of the park that serves as an important preserve for many species whose habitats have been destroyed by development in surrounding areas.

Each spring, for instance, there is a kaleidoscopic array of chocolate lilies, purple shooting stars, pink wild sweet peas, yellow pansies, blue-eyed grass and many other species. The extension would bulldoze much of this wildflower display into oblivion.

And it would hasten the decline of such wild creatures as the coyote and deer, and chances to view them.

Councilwoman McCarty has been a strong supporter of Mission Trails park, but on the extension issue she appears to be wearing blinders. She maintains that Jackson Drive will enhance people’s ability “to appreciate the natural wilderness and to escape urban pressures.”

How can a major roadway slicing through dedicated parkland do anything but corrode the “wilderness” experience? In fact, the extension epitomizes “urban pressures” and injects the very elements (rapid vehicles, noise, exhaust fumes and so forth) that people go to a park to get away from.

Environmentally sound alternatives can provide access to the west side of the park. Dirt roads and Jeep trails crisscross portions of the area. Upgrading several of these roads--which follow the contours of the land rather than superimposing themselves on it, as would the large, linear extension--can afford ready access at a fraction of the cost of Jackson Drive. A staging area on the west mesa with shuttle service to remote reaches of the park is another possibility. In these ways, individuals and families who prefer to drive rather than hike can commune with nature, picnic, camp and savor a remnant of wildness only minutes from the heart of the nation’s sixth-largest city.

The City Council should remove the Jackson Drive extension from the master plan as it did the Clairemont Mesa Boulevard connection. The extension would be, by far, the single most destructive occurrence in the history of Mission Trails Regional Park.

Let’s not spend upwards of $40 million for hardly 3 miles of nonessential roadway, that would simply save a few minutes of commute time. Let’s spend the money on much-needed road projects in every part of the city and save an invaluable piece of natural open space parkland for all time.