Dear Members and Friends,
You have likely read in recent news reports of efforts to remove vehicle traffic from Plaza de Panama; a goal we know many San Diegans enthusiastically support. The Plaza de Panama Committee has put forth a plan that achieves this by re-routing traffic around the Plaza de Panama and building a parking structure to the south of the Organ Pavilion.
On Tuesday, July 19, 2011 the San Diego City Council is scheduled to consider approving a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Plaza de Panama Committee that calls for a comprehensive review, including a full Environment Impact Report (EIR), of the Committee’s plan. The EIR would include an evaluation of project alternatives and required mitigation measures.
The San Diego Museum of Art supports the approval of the MOU that would require the City of San Diego to conduct a review of the Plaza de Panama Committee’s plan and its alternatives.
Approval of this MOU will not approve the project but will allow the completion of studies necessary to understand the environmental effects of the proposed changes including a thorough assessment of the Park’s complicated traffic patterns. We encourage you to become more familiar with this issue. Links to the
letter from Mayor Sanders and the
Plaza de Panama website are provided. We join other institutions in the Park, including the Old Globe Theatre, the San Diego Natural History Museum, and the Mingei International Museum in supporting approval of the MOU and
ask you to contact your council member and express your support for his or her vote of approval of the MOU. We believe that a vote to approve the MOU is critically important to the evolution of Balboa Park and the short and long term health of The San Diego Museum of Art.
During the City’s review process for the MOU opponents of the Committee’s plan suggested that the City experiment with temporary periodic closings of the Cabrillo (Laurel Street) Bridge to vehicles. The City has followed up on that suggestion requesting input from the institutions on the effects of such closures. A link to the l
etter from the Director of Parks and Recreation describing the proposed closings is provided. The proposed closings would include weekends and holiday periods, time periods that are critical to the Museum’s attendance, and may include closings of the bridge, the Plaza de Panama, and the Alcazar Garden parking lot to all vehicular traffic.
The Museum joins all of the museums and other organizations in the park in strongly opposing this action. Such closings, even temporarily, will cause major disruption and financial harm to the institutions.
We ask that you contact your council member and express your strong disapproval of any experimental closings of the Cabrillo Bridge, Plaza de Panama and the Alcazar Garden parking lot to vehicles. Contact information for each of the council members is provided below for your convenience.
Thank you for your continued support of The San Diego Museum of Art and interest at this important time. We look forward to seeing you this summer at the Museum.
Roxana Velásquez
The Maruja Baldwin Director 
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