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Presidio Park, Serra Museum Parking Lot and Ramp Project
Needs Improvement
By Bruce Coons
Executive Director
July/August 2022
 The Plan of the San Diego Presidio completed by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and dated 1820. Source: The Journal of San Diego History, Summer 1986, page 193. Courtesy San Diego History Center |
Presidio Park is one of the most significant historical and cultural landscapes, and archeological sites in the United States. It is not only a local treasure; it is a National Historical Landmark (NHL) and has international significance as “the Plymouth Rock of the Pacific Coast.” San Diego has the responsibility and obligation to future generations to protect it.
SOHO has concerns about the ADA/catering parking lot and ramp project for the Junípero Serra Museum that is being pressed by the City of San Diego without benefit of public review.
The parking lot and ADA path project is precisely located at the site of the casamata (fort), which was constructed on high ground to defend the Spanish presidio.
This project has an extremely high potential of disrupting or completely destroying the archaeological deposits associated with the casamata, as well as removing trees and Marston cobble features in the park. It would also forever alter and destroy the historic setting and landscape, reducing the historic elevation, the site’s significant topographical feature by 5 to 10 feet.
Ironically, this destructive project would not even accomplish the goal of providing ADA access to the Serra Museum.
An associated road widening/straightening project proposed for Presidio Drive would potentially destroy portions of the Presidio itself.
Due to the likely significant impacts to the Spanish presidio, Serra Museum, and Presidio Park as a whole, a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) of this NHL is required and the project must be reviewed by the Keeper of the National Register, the State of California’s Historic Preservation Office, and the City of San Diego’s Historical Resources Board (HRB).One alternative solution (prepared by Heritage Architecture & Planning) would create ADA access to all parts of the museum from an existing parking area via an elevator on the museum’s north side, out of public sight. This alternative avoids the archeological deposits and leaves the landscape intact. This solution as well as others that can reduce the impacts to this unique site need to be studied and presented for public review.
 The red line shows the current project. |
In 2005, SOHO proposed that the City transfer Presidio Park to California State Historic Parks. We have long expressed concerns that the presidio and the park require much higher protection, oversight, and maintenance than the City seems willing to provide. The park’s deteriorated condition amounts to a situation much like when George Marston along with G. Aubrey Davidson and Col. David C. Collier felt compelled to purchase the site and surrounding land to save it from development—because the City would not act.
SOHO urges San Diegans and the City to reject this ill-conceived project as it is proposed. Instead, we must request that alternative solutions be analyzed, and reviewed by HRB staff for consistency with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, and that a full EIR be completed before proceeding further with this extremely destructive project at what is arguably San Diego’s most historic site.
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