Southwest Chula Vista Civic Association

minutes of 8/30/2010 General Meeting held at:

Jimmy's Family Restaurant meeting room 1133 third Ave., 20 attended

1. Call to order at 6:52PM

2. Presentation by Noel Crisostomo, SDG&E representative on the Smart Meter Program.

    a. Beginning the middle of September, all Chula Vista meters will be upgraded. Starting on the West and working eastward to completion around the middle of December.

    b.  All 1.4 million customers will have the new meters by the end of 2011 but probably much sooner.

    c. Future benefits include: better monitoring of power usage and opportunity to join time of use rate plans. Instant awareness of power outages. Possible linking to smart appliances remotely in the future.

    d. Drawbacks include: No plan for solar powered homes to upgrade at this time. The ability to shutoff power to late or delinquent bill payers. .15% of customers saw an increase in their bill. Still unclear how this will affect mobile home park tenants that have a master meter and individual meters but the master will only be upgraded.

3. Presentation by Liberty One Media on the plan to bring progressive talk radio to this area. www.libertyoneradio.com  is the website with information on how to help bring this type of programming to the airwaves. The need to counter aggressive conservative talk radio that currently dominates was discussed. Trying for 540 on the AM dial.

4. Presentation by the MTS on the Blueline trolley renewal program.

    a. The blue line is the oldest and most successful trolley line in the area. Serving 65,000 - 70,000 riders per day between the border and old town. It requires the lowest subsidy of all the trolley lines at 40% of operating cost.

    b. The upgrade is a 5 year project costing 620 million dollars including: New track, wiring, 33 new stations, 22 new grade crossings.

    c. Low ramp boarding is a priority for better access.

5. Presentation by Ramon Martinez on the I-805 corridor improvement program.

    a. Overall project is 2.5 billion dollars and will include improvements from the border to SR 52. Overall plan is to link Bus Rapid Transit regionally with managed lanes.

    b. The south portion of the project will cost 1.3 billion dollars and affect Palomar St. to the SR 15 interchange and take place from 2012- 2020.

    c. Managed lanes will be added at the freeway median and be accessed by ramps connecting to the middle of overpasses not currently having access (Palomar St. for example)

    d. Because of an agreement with the toll road owners only one lane in each direction may be built pending future negotiations. 

    e. Concerns about increasing local traffic on the western 2-lane section of Palomar St. are not being adequately addressed.

Adjourn at 9:00 P.M.