$2.6M CYCLING CENTER APPROVED AT LIBERTY STATION
Facility would encourage bike commutes, feature repair area and exhibits
San Diego’s efforts to boost bicycling as a healthy activity and an alternative way to commute got a boost this week when the City Council approved plans for a $2.6 million regional bicycle transit center in Liberty Station.
The new center, which supporters describe as a community gathering place “for all things bicycle,” is slated to have areas for lectures, exhibits, safety seminars, group gatherings, bike repair and some limited commercial activities.
Money for the project — which will include renovating abandoned U.S. Navy Building 191 in Liberty Station’s Naval Training Center Park — will come from a fundraising campaign led by the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition. No city funds will be used.
The fundraising campaign may include selling naming rights to the cycling center and allowing part of the center to be occupied by cycling companies and related businesses.
The center will be close to San Diego Bay, next to another former Navy building where a large joint-use
aquatics center is being planned by officials from the city and the San Diego Unified School District.
The two buildings are part of Naval Training Center Park, 46 acres of the 361-acre Liberty Station that were reserved for recreational use when the city acquired the land from the Navy in 1997.
Earlier this year, federal officials gave the city permission to pursue the regional bicycling center. On Tuesday, the City Council unanimously approved plans for the cen
ter.
It will be close to popular cycling paths along the San Diego River, Mission Bay and San Diego Bay. Cyclists on those paths may make the cycling center a regular part of their journey, said Andy Hanshaw, executive director of the bicycle coalition.
“Let’s think of it as a cultural bike hub,” Hanshaw said Wednesday. “It will be sort of an iconic place for people to gather.”
The center, which could open