San Diego Trolley Project Eyes Armstrong Location
Armstrong Garden Center’s location in the Morena District of San Diego has an uncertain future thanks to San Diego’s $1.7 billion trolley system construction project, reports Gene Cubbison, NBC 7 San Diego.
While a new trolley station is proposed near the garden center, a 256-space parking for its commuters would actually take over the space that is currently occupied by the garden center.
Armstrong store manager Bill Albert says of SANDAG, the region’s transportation planning agency, “Hopefully, they’re not just set on one solution. Hopefully, there’s a couple other solutions that could make it work for both sides.”
“Failing to find a win-win situation, the store would get relocation benefits and assistance — but no guarantee of new space in this marketing area,” writes Cubbison.
Armstrong is currently urging customers to lobby SANDAG directors at a Nov. 15 hearing on trolley extension project issues.
“But people have to show up, people have to express how they feel, and that’s the problem,” Armstrong customer Linda Stolba said on her way into the store Thursday afternoon. “People don’t do that anymore. They just get very complacent. We feel like we don’t have any power. It’s all been taken away from us.”
According to Jim Linthicum, SANDAG’s director of mobility, the Armstrong site ” maximizes the use of public right-of-way — the land that’s owned (encompassing part of the Armstrong operation) right now by the city of San Diego. At the same time it minimizes impacts to the business community.”
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