Quail Brush Power Plant Appeal Goes to San Diego City Council Monday

Update: Quail Brush Power Plant Appeal Denied by San Diego City Council

Activists opposed to the construction of a power plant adjacent to Mission Trails Regional Park and Santee plan to fill San Diego City Hall Monday to urge the City Council to vote against initiating studies for the project.

The Quail Brush Energy Generation Project, which would be developed by Charlotte, N.C.-based Cogentrix, has raised the ire of environmentalists, residents of Santee and the Santee School District. It already has been rejected by the city of San Diego's Planning Commission, prompting a company appeal directly to the City Council.

Council members will be asked at their meeting Monday (which begins at 2 p.m.) whether to have city staff initiate studies on the proposal for a 100-megawatt plant on almost 22 acres near the Sycamore Landfill, close to state Route 52 and Mast Boulevard and down the street from residential neighborhoods and West Hills High School.

The facility on land adjacent to San Diego's Mission Trails Regional Park, the state's largest municipally owned park, would be a "peaker plant," turned on only during periods of high energy demand.

If the council gives the go-ahead, staff would analyze whether the East Elliott Community Plan should be amended to re-zone the property from open space to industrial, and to study whatever issues might arise from locating the plant there.

The council is not scheduled to decide on final approval of the plant today, according to city documents.

Opponents testified before the Planning Commission last month that a power plant in the area would be incompatible with its surroundings, including Mission Trails Regional Park.

The Sierra Club and Save Mission Trails said in a statement Friday that they planned to fill the Council Chamber today in an effort to kill the proposal. Activists will urge the City Council to uphold the Planning Commission's decision to deny the Elliott Community Plan amendment request.

Besides Sierra Club and Save Mission Trails, the coalition opposed to the plant includes the League of Women Voters of San Diego, San Diego Audubon Society, the Environmental Health Coalition, Preserve Wild Santee and SanDiego350.org.

-City News Service

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