By TR Robertson
The Escondido Chamber of Commerce’s monthly meeting of its Government Affairs Committee, held at the Chamber Office in the Jack Raymond Building at 720 Broadway, had Mayor of San Marcos Rebecca Jones as the featured speaker. Mayor Jones, Mayor of San Marcos since 2018, also serves on the SANDAG board. SANDAG stands for the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional agency responsible for transportation planning, construction, and funding in the San Diego Metropolitan area. Its responsibilities also include building transportation infrastructure, managing transit systems, and working on projects to reduce congestion and improve air quality in the region.
The Government Affairs Committee meeting began with a welcome and brief reports from representatives of various governmental agencies. After this, the new Police Chief of Escondido, Ken Plunkett, was introduced. Plunkett comes to Escondido after serving with the West Covina Police Department. The next speaker was Escondido City Councilmember Judy Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald spoke about studies underway involving Escondido and Valley Center concerning road safety issues. She also stressed the importance of supporting the local police and fire departments.
Following Fitzgerald was Laurie Gonzalez, member of the Rincon Tribal Council band of Luiseno Indians. Gonzalez said this is Native American Heritage month with various celebrations underway and more events coming up in December. Also speaking was a member of the City of Escondido Public Arts Department saying Saturday, November 29th will be Small Business Saturday and trolleys will be provided to take shoppers to the various locations of the businesses taking part. Also, on December 5th the Escondido Christmas Parade will be held at night beginning at 7 pm going down Grand Street. A pop-up roller rink will also open, and Holiday markets will open on Maple Street.
Mayor Jones was the featured speaker. She said she serves on the SANDAG Board and on various committees and is currently a candidate for the soon to be vacant Supervisor District 5 position, currently held by Jim Desmond. Desmond is running for the 49th Congressional District. Jones went over many of the functions of SANDAG and introduced SANDAG CEO Mario Orso. Orso also discussed the functions and funding of SANDAG projects. He said they are currently in the process of updating the Regional Plan, which occurs every 4 years. Jones said they are also working on the proposed $125 billion budget plan. She said a tax that was voted on and passed will also go toward funding the 2025 plan. The Mayor said she was primarily responsible for getting the proposed road user tax to be removed from the plan and that there will not be a Toll Road for a managed lane on Highway 78. She said SANDAG needs to set realistic goals that can be achieved and hopes the Micro Transit Program is expanded that would aid in short distance trips for county residents. Another thing Mayor Jones said she would like to see return to North County is the Bus Rapid Transit between Riverside and North County. One proposal that is being planned is the Expanded HOV lanes on Highway 5 from the 78 connector to Harbor Dr. She also said the public needs to get involved with SANDAG with feedback back about any transit concerns. During a short question and answer session both Mayor Jones and CEO Orso gave feedback when asked about the environmental study needed for any of the projects, specifically the Highway 78 to Highway 5 connector. Orso said each of the Highway 78 connectors would cost roughly $500 million. He said studies are currently underway for each one. Orso also said there are two breakdowns for the Regional Plans – one going up to 2035 and one for 2035 to 2050. Responding to a question about what is called “Deadman’s Curve” in Highway 76 it was pointed out that unfortunately many of the issues that need to be addressed take a while to implement and fund. The concern for this particular road was what is being done to take care of this area that frequently has accidents. Orso said that unfortunately each of the concerns addressed have a long process that involves studies, public feedback, proposals, financing, etc. This was also in response to tribal concerns about their road infrastructure.
Several handouts were provided. One listed proposals for North County. Some of the proposals included were issues like dealing with Sprinter issues like making pick up times faster, building bridges and tunnels so traffic wouldn’t have to stop at crossings, adding additional bus routes, making improvements to the Coastal train line, replacing old bridges, increasing the number of shuttles in North County, adding express lanes on Highway 78, providing Youth Opportunity Passes to young people under the age of 18, funding programs to provide help for older adults and people with disabilities to get to where they need to go, continuing the building of the Rail Trail 21-mile walk/bike path and the 42-mile Coastal Rail Trail. These are but a few of the proposals under study or underway. Also passed out was a North County Subregion Projects list going up to 2050 listing the Project name, a brief description, Phase year for the projects and proposed cost.
The presentation was informative and a bit daunting when looking at what needs to be done with the transit and road system, the cost involved and what it takes to go through all of the governmental processes to begin or complete all of these needed improvements. Your government is at work, it just take a while to accomplish what is needed.
