SAN DIEGO COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Proposition E: The Space Saver

One of the characteristics that makes San Diego so different from most other large cities is the roomy, open feel it still retains. Within a major urban center of more than 1.2 million people, there are still chunks of real estate and scenic canyons not yet paved over, where the auto is unwelcome and quiet reigns.

But the city’s defining paradox is that such places continue to disappear beneath the bulldozer’s blade as people relocate here to enjoy them. Much of the remaining unspoiled land is in private hands, never completely safe from the irresistible offer to develop.

Proposition E on the Nov. 6 ballot, which would authorize $100 million in bonds to purchase open space and improve or acquire parkland, represents a significant opportunity to preserve some of the terrain that makes San Diego what it is. We strongly urge a yes vote on Proposition E.

Community planning groups have drawn up a comprehensive list of projects eligible for acquisition or improvement. The impressive wish list contains everything from a wetland in Sorrento Hills to a linear park in the Gaslamp Quarter to playground equipment at Presidio Park.

Proposition E would fund some of these. Thirty million dollars would be set aside for land acquisition in the San Dieguito, Tijuana and Otay river valleys. The rest would be divided among community and regional projects in a city whose older neighborhoods are desperately in need of parks and open space.

The money can be spent only if there is no other way to acquire the land. We’re a bit uncomfortable that the final choices are left to the City Council, because political wrangling might delay the purchases. But there would be a citizens’ group to advise the council on selections.

San Diego’s per capita municipal debt is among the lowest in the nation, and these bonds would cost the average property owner just $16 per $100,000 of assessed valuation--a reasonable price to pay for preserving the topography that defines this city.