ANY HOME, ANY WHERE SEARCH APP
text 123RE to 87778 Lanz (619)564-6355 CAL BRE#01883404
San Diego Community Newspaper Group
Thursday February 27, 2014
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 28, Number 5
Council OKs rules for city’s medical pot dispensaries BY DAVE SCHWAB | THE BEACON
THE PIED PIPER OF BUBBLES Alan Kier of I Bubble Design created some enormous bubbles at the Ocean Beach Pier recently, catching plenty of attention from passersby. The company features fine-art giclee prints of Kier’s bubble creations through the high-definition photography of Roger Photo by Jim Grant I The Beacon Lawrence. For more information, visit bubbledesign.com or email ibubbledesign@gmail.com.
SD Bird Festival: the Super Bowl of ornithology
SEE P0T, Page 4
Retooled airport layout set to ease grief for harried travelers
BY DAVE SCHWAB | THE BEACON Birders of every feather will flock together to the San Diego Bird Festival from Feb. 27 to March 2 at Marina Village on Mission Bay. “This is our 18th year for the festival, which is our biggest annual event,” said Jen Hajj, festival coordinator for the San Diego Audubon Society (SDAS), which hosts the event at the conference center and marina at 1936 Quivira Way. “It’s an opportunity for people from all over the world to come to San Diego and enjoy our magnificent wildlife and our unique habitats and the wonderful diversity of birds we have here.” Every year hundreds of birders worldwide migrate to the San Diego Bird Festival for four days of field trips, birding, exhibitions and speakers. The San Diego Audubon Society’s four-day birdfest is the equivalent of the Super Bowl in bird watching, said Hajj. “Senior birders around the nation say there are three bird festivals that you need to go to, and this is one of them,” she said. San Diego, with its more than 500 bird species and its diverse array of habitats from ocean to wetlands to mountains and desert, makes the
San Diego City Council voted 8-1 on Feb. 25 to enact zoning regulations that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to operate. But councilmembers also restricted dispensaries to mostly outlying industrial areas no closer than 100 feet from residences and 1,000 feet from each other, schools, churches or daycare centers. Perhaps most notably, the vote also capped the number of dispensaries allowed to set up shop and operate in any one of the nine City Council districts to a maximum of four — a total of 30 citywide. Several of the council districts, like interim Mayor Todd Gloria’s District 3, have no existing zonings that would
meet the new requirements for dispensaries to operate. Other communities, however, like Kearny Mesa and Otay Mesa, contain numerous parcels where dispensaries could be located. District 5 City Councilman Mark Kersey, who cast the dissenting vote, said he could not vote for the ordinance because his constituents opposed it and because federal law continues to forbid possession and sale of marijuana, despite what California voters approved a few years ago. The City Council action amends the land-development code and the local coastal program to add medical marijuana consumer cooperatives as a new, separately regulated land use.
BY TONY DE GARATE | THE BEACON
Audience members are riveted during a session on raptors at a previous San Diego Bird Festival. The birdfest is scheduled to take place this year at the conference center and marina at 1936 Quivira Way at Mission Bay from Feb. 27 through March 2. Courtesy photo by Karen Straus
region the ideal place for a bird festival to nest. “There’s just a lot of magic here with all the different kinds of birds and so many habitats that makes it a very rich area for seeing birds,” Hajj said. She added the Audubon Society festival brings out the “really interesting people, our guides, special speakers, etc. We have a lot of events that are interesting for birders and non-birders
alike.” On Friday, Feb. 28, the festival’s banquet keynote speaker at the conference center and marina will be James Currie, host of “Nikon’s Birding Adventures” on NBC Sports Network. A birding expert and an adventurer whose passion has taken him to explore remote cultures, Currie has been featured as a SEE BIRDS, Page 4
In less than two years, the Laurel Street-to-Harbor Drive route to get to your flight will be a thing of the past for a large number of air travelers. People who need to return their rental cars — that's about 1 in 7 air travelers — will head for the corner of Pacific Highway and Sassafras Street and turn west. Once on airport property, they'll drop off their cars at a $316 million, four-story, 2 million-square-foot facility that will house 16 rental car companies. Those rare travelers not in a rush can enjoy the lush landscaping and public art or have dinner at a fine-dining restaurant within the building. They'll be whisked away — or arrive, if their plane has just touched down — on a shuttle that uses a route that stays inside airport property and avoids using Harbor Drive for more than half the journey. It will be a consolidated shuttle for all rental-car companies, reducing the number of buses by 75 percent.
A plane touches down at Lindbergh Field, where a massive facilities makeover is expected to make life easier for travelers. Airport officials have been hosting a series of town hall meetings in various communities to educate residents about the changes and Courtesy photo to gather feedback.
Many people who park at the airport will also get to use the Sassafras Street entrance. A new, relocated $11.9 million parking lot is scheduled to open next SEE AIRPORT, Page 4