Even though the Port of San Diego hasn’t received millions of dollars pledged to them late last year, San Diego Port Commissioner Anne Moore said recently she is excited by what the money will do for Chula Vista.
In November the California Natural Resources Agency awarded a $4.8 million grant to the Port of San Diego for its Sweetwater bicycle path and promenade project, which is a component of the Chula Vista bayfront.
The bicycle path and promenade project will be a three-quarter-mile Class I bike path and pedestrian walkway linking the regional bayshore bikeway to the waterfront.
The Sweetwater bike path, which is integrated into the Bayfront Master Plan, will extend south and west and into Bayside Park, making a new connection for bicyclists and pedestrians.
“(Once completed) this is really going to allow public access to our beautiful bayfront,” said Moore, who represents Chula Vista on the Port Commission.
Sweetwater bike path and promenade project has a projected budget of $5.63 million. The grant will only cover $4.8 million of the actual costs.
“This grant basically gets the project off the ground,” Moore said. “It nearly covers the entire cost of the bikeway.”
Linda Scott, capital projects manager with the Port of San Diego, said both the city of Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego will pay the $800,000 difference to complete the project.
Scott said the remaining $800,000 accounts for staff costs in managing the project.
Construction on the Sweetwater Bicycle Path and Promenade project is anticipated to begin in 2019 with completion in 2020.
“It’s a huge grant for this project,” Scott said. “It allows us to move this project ahead of an accelerated schedule.”
The grant is the second largest of the 39 awards given to infrastructure projects chosen through the state’s Urban Greening Program, Scott said.
Funded by Cap and Trade revenues, the grant supports projects that aim to reduce greenhouse gasses by sequestering carbon, decreasing energy consumption and reducing vehicles miles traveled.
“The large goal of the path is both to provide trees for improving the environment and then to increase alternative transportation such as bicycle and pedestrian and active type of transportation as opposed to hopping in your car,” Scott said. “This project very well meets those goals.”
The 535-acre Chula Vista Bayfront project represents one of the last large-scale waterfront development opportunities in Southern California.
The Bayfront project is expected to generate nearly $2.8 billion for the regional economy during construction and nearly $2.1 billion a year at build out.
It is estimated that it will generate nearly 10,000 construction jobs and 20,000 permanent jobs.
Last September, Port and City officials unveiled the first renderings of the bayfront and its plans to create 60,000 square-feet of restaurant, retail and marina support uses; 200,000 square-feet of mixed-use commercial/marine related office uses; and a 1,100 to 3,000 space parking garage.
With the bayfront’s center piece being a $1 billion resort hotel and convention center that will be built by RIDA Development on a 36-acre site.
