Infrastructure Impact Program
The City of San Diego's Infrastructure Impact Program was created in 1993 to minimize the negative impacts on small businesses due to large-scale public improvement projects, such as San Diego Trolley lines, water and sewer upgrades, major road and freeway construction and significant streetscape improvement projects.
By advocating the concerns of the small business community and initiating dialogue between other city departments, developers and various governmental agencies, such as the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), San Diego County Water Authority and Metropolitan Transit Development Board, the program works to ensure that small businesses have access to information, assistance and decision-making during major and potentially disruptive infrastructure projects. Program staff devise plans that cater to the respective project issues and needs of the specific business community. Oftentimes, key strategies of intervention plans include:
Information
Ensuring that accurate, up-to-date project information is consistently provided helps to minimize confusion and creates opportunities to mitigate impacts and plan for impacts that are unavoidable. The information flow is necessary between the public works agency and:
- Infrastructure Impact Program Staff: Information at the earliest stage of planning the construction project allows staff to advise agencies about concerns of the business community so that impact mitigation can be built into the project from the onset.
- Merchants: Information allows merchants to communicate their concerns, participate in the decision-making process, and plan for unavoidable impacts to their businesses.
- Customers and Residents: Informing the public about specific project details also helps to lessen negative perceptions of construction areas, mitigating loss of sales to the affected merchants. Information is disseminated through targeted brochures, flyers, etc.
- Other Construction Project Agencies involved in Multi-Project Area: Information flow is also vitally important when there are several projects in one area coordinated by different agencies, as agencies can determine how projects will impact each other. Adjustments can be made prior to avoidable impacts, saving time and money for the agencies involved and better serving the businesses and the community.
Creating Partnerships
Bringing together the agencies involved in construction and the affected merchants helps to create a dialogue that is extremely productive. Input by merchants is invaluable, as they often can help mitigate additional problems during construction, such as informing agencies about detours that pose unforseen dangers. By collectively identifying solutions to problems and concerns, costly project delays, possible litigation, and adversarial relationships can be avoided.
Policy Development
Elevating the importance of impact mitigation has resulted in increased coordination among city departments and other agencies involved in infrastructure projects. The program has already been successful in helping to change guidelines for approval of noise permits and easing of sign code enforcement during construction to better serve the community. The ultimate goal is to have public works agencies consistently use the program as a tool in the early planning stages of construction projects.
Direct Assistance
Providing technical assistance to the affected businesses (as a group and individually) helps merchants remain stable during potentially disruptive projects. Special Small Business Enhancement Program grants have been awarded on a case-by-case basis to established business organizations to help finance this assistance, which ranges from individual consultation regarding displays, inventory and financing to designing programs which address the marketing efforts of the district as a whole.
The Infrastructure Impact Program has been used in more than 30 projects throughout the City of San Diego. The following are two prime examples:
Morena Project Host to three major, overlapping construction projects by three different agencies, the Morena Shopping Quarter was due for significant impacts to area businesses. Beginning in January 1996 and continuing into 1997, these projects included the Mission Valley West Trolley Line, the Miramar Pipeline, and undergrounding of utilities. City Infrastructure Impact Program staff immediately stepped in and worked with the businesses to assess their concerns and coordinate mitigation plans with each of the agencies. The City worked with Caltrans to keep the Morena Boulevard off-ramp from Interstate 8 open during construction of the trolley line, reversing a plan that would have severely limited access to the shopping district. Better traffic management, easing of sign code enforcement, and helping to organize the Morena Shopping District merchants were all Infrastructure Impact Program successes.
Interstate 15 (40th Street) Project The impacts from the three-year construction of the Interstate 15 freeway connection through Mid-City could have potentially reached thousands of businesses in five business improvement districts: Adams Avenue, City Heights, El Cajon Central, El Cajon Gateway and North Park. To offset some of these far-reaching and lengthy impacts, the Infrastructure Impact Program worked with the business improvement districts, Caltrans, City Council District 3, state Assembly District 76, and other City departments to set up a structure to keep information flowing, minimize impacts and to create strategies, and help the businesses outlast the unavoidable inconveniences of such a massive construction project.
For more information on the Infrastructure Impact Program, contact the City's Office of Small Business.
|
