Friends Of SDSU Submits Signatures For SDSU West Initiative
Friends of SDSU and supporters gathered Tuesday to continue efforts to claim the Mission Valley land occupied by Qualcomm Stadium.
The group submitted 106,134 signed petitions at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters to begin official verification for the SDSU West Initiative to be placed on a 2018 ballot. To appear on the ballot, the group needed 71,646 verified signatures.
Those behind the proposed SoccerCity project also are interested in the property for a development that would include a new Major League Soccer stadium. SDSU broke off talks in May about sharing that project's stadium, instead putting forth its own plan for the site.
The SDSU plan would involve acquiring the site, valued at $82M, to create an academic village with housing, research facilities, parks, a hotel and commercial space and a new Aztec stadium.
The project varies in key ways from SoccerCity. The main criticism is that the SDSU project is too vague, with no clear answer on how it will be funded, while SoccerCity would not utilize taxpayer dollars. SoccerCity also includes a larger swath of land than the Friends of SDSU plan does.
"The Friends of SDSU look forward to an exciting campaign this year to make SDSU West a reality for our city, region and San Diego State University," a Friends of SDSU spokesperson said. "SDSU West requires a critical public and transparent planning process for the Mission Valley stadium site. In that spirit, the Friends of SDSU will be actively working with all San Diegans to ensure that this critical public land is ultimately used for public benefit."
San Diego State University recently released its SDSU Mission Valley plan, which covers the university campus SDSU would create on the stadium site, should SDSU West be approved by voters.
"[The project] would preserve more than half the site as permanent and public open space, create a vibrant campus environment, plan appropriately sized retail space for the community and create an innovation hub that fosters collaboration between education, research and high-tech business," the spokesperson said.
