The unincorporated area is frustrated. Its 600,000 people are frustrated.
I believe in our regional mission at SANDAG. However, it appears that again and again this is aspirational instead of actual.
The Draft 2025 Regional Plan is hyperfocused on coastal and city projects to the exclusion of the unincorporated area taxpayer whose money pays for those projects,
The unincorporated area taxpayer is laser-focused on wildfire evacuation and road safety — that is why they voted to raise highway improvement taxes through TransNet — not once, but twice.
However, here at SANDAG we’ve recently allocated $27 million for a bike lane that will never benefit unincorporated area residents. Wearing our regional hat — if SANDAG’s goal is to add bike paths to the region then what prevents SANDAG from creating separate Class I bike paths in areas outside the metro area?
For example, why haven’t any multi-use separate pathways been created for our residents in Jamul? These folks own bikes, too.
NCTD Plus is a last mile connection service within some cities that provides riders with flexible transportation within their community. These cities already have public transportation, but now they will have enhanced — Cadillac-level service — while unincorporated communities continue to lack even basic service levels.
For example, we have thousands of students living in the unincorporated community of San Diego Country Estates. These kids have zero transportation service — forget about flexible service — they have zero service. It is 6 miles from their neighborhood to the town’s schools, library, businesses and jobs.
Wearing our regional hat — when will these children’s needs be recognized by SANDAG? How can we leave them out of our planning?
Naturally, we focus on what we can see right in front of us. The geographically-disadvantaged unincorporated area residents seem to be hidden in plain sight with respect to SANDAG projects. The County is 2.9 million acres of which 2.3 million acres are unincorporated. That translates into 959 square miles of cities compared to 3,567 square miles of unincorporated area.
When we see a project map that is mostly blank in these 2.3 million acres and we know that 600,000 people live there and paid their taxes — something is wrong. Can we honestly declare we are wearing our regional hat when looking at this map? How do we demonstrate that we are being fair to them?
The population is there. The need has been present for decades. The will to act regionally is absent.
I always assume innocent intent, but our residents continue to be left out. What is causing this situation? And, more importantly, what will change the culture of SANDAG to recognize and take action to implement equity for those living outside the geographically-advantaged zone?
What will it take for SANDAG to embrace the regional focus for which it has been entrusted? 600,000 people are asking…
Robin Joy Maxson is a Ramona Municipal Planning Group and an advisory member of the SANDAG Board of Directors for unincorporated areas
