The city of San Diego is eyeing the overflow parking lot of a popular tennis and pickleball center in Point Loma as a potential site for more affordable housing, sparking a heated debate. At the same time, an investigation by the city auditor concluded the facility\u2019s conversion and use of that lot is illegal.<\/p>\n
The Barnes Tennis Center\u2019s overflow lot is one of 11 city-owned sites the city of San Diego has identified for potential development in its Affordable Home Development Master Plan, aimed at addressing the housing and homelessness crisis.<\/p>\n
Barnes sent an email to its community members on Thursday, asking for advocacy against the proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis parking is crucial to keeping the facility accessible to the community,\u201d the email reads in part. \u201cIt’s how thousands of players, families, and visitors reach the courts every week, and it supports the daily programming, junior development, and tournaments Barnes hosts across tennis, pickleball, and padel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were up in arms,\u201d said Cheryl McGrory, who plays at Barnes a few times a week. \u201cIt should not be used for a high-rise. It\u2019s a designated facility to serve underprivileged youth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have mixed emotions,\u201d added Sean Keigwin, who also plays there. \u201cI do want more affordable housing for people, obviously, like rent is crazy in San Diego. [But] Barnes does a great thing for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Barnes Tennis Center and the ten other sites are only being considered for further study\u00a0at this time,\u201d a city planning department spokesman said in a statement in part. \u201cThere\u00a0are no\u00a0proposed development projects,\u00a0nor\u00a0have\u00a0there\u00a0been\u00a0any decisions\u00a0made\u00a0regarding\u00a0any of the sites.\u201d<\/p>\n
The planning department went on to say that the city will consider feedback as it develops its draft plan and residents will have the opportunity to review that draft plan before any decisions are made.<\/p>\n
But that lot has also drawn the scrutiny of another city department: the auditor\u2019s office, which just released a 53-page report finding Barnes illegally turned the natural landscape of that lot into gravel parking without permits, and continued to use it as parking after the city told Barnes to stop in 2024.<\/p>\n
Barnes\u2019 chief operating officer declined an on-camera interview request but said the organization is working on a response to those allegations in the coming days.<\/p>\n
The investigation came after a complaint to the auditor\u2019s fraud hotline, according to the report, which included a photo of banners neighbors hung from their homes next to the lot that read \u201cillegal parking\u201d and \u201cour kids are breathing your dust.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s always crowded on the weekends,\u201d said Lydia LaManna, who lives behind the lot. \u201cAnd then there are car alarms going off, people getting towed, people fighting over spots.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be very annoying all day long having people parked out there and, like, right outside our unit,\u201d added Michael Pollmow.<\/p>\n
Both said the pickleball noise all day is grating, and the addition of the lot has been insult to injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely miss when it was just a field,\u201d LaManna said.<\/p>\n
Another neighbor, though, said he didn\u2019t mind the lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve never really thought twice about it. I walk my dog over there,\u201d said Andrew Ashour. \u201cI couldn’t possibly imagine it not being a parking lot. I don’t know where else people would park for, you know, some of their bigger events.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the housing proposal, residents\u2019 reactions were mixed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wonder if it would be quieter than hearing pickleball from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.,\u201d LaManna said. \u201cPerhaps I would be OK with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally wouldn\u2019t be a big fan of that,\u201d Pollmow said. \u201cIf I could have my way, it would be nice if that were turned back to a natural lot like it was before.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there should be more affordable housing in general,\u201d Ashour said. \u201cRent\u2019s way too high. And if that is, like, quite literally in my backyard, then hell, I’m for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnes\u2019 COO said he didn\u2019t think anyone in the organization opposes affordable housing but said they believe there\u2019s a place to build it that would not impact their work in the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city of San Diego is eyeing the overflow parking lot of a popular tennis and pickleball center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1011,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-446939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-housing","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}