On Tuesday, May 21, San Diego’s City Council wrongly voted to recognize a new group to replace Uptown Planners, the Community Planning Group (CPG) that has served the Uptown community for over 20 years.

In an effort that began about two years ago, Councilmember Joe LaCava (D1) decided, and the City Council agreed, that CPGs were not representative of their communities and that all 42 (now 39) CPGs needed to be recertified. New groups were welcome to submit a proposal based on newly revised rules, City Council Policy 600-24.

Cudos to my colleagues at Uptown Planners for working their butts off to meet the demands of the Planning Department in rewriting the bylaws, based on the call for greater representativeness.

Then, instead of representation, it became a question of organizational structure. Our own D3 Councilmember Stephen Whitburn emphasized the importance of this structural change: the new group will have elections based on the six neighborhoods of Uptown, further splintering our Uptown community and pitting businesses, homeowners, renters, and neighborhoods against each other. It also violates the principle of one person, one vote because it doesn’t recognize the particularities of Uptown’s six neighborhoods.

Councilmember Marni von Wilpert recognized that the City Council was effectively replacing an elected group (Uptown Planners) with an unelected, untested group before the end of their elected terms. She voted against the effort.

Our own City Councilmember, Stephen Whitburn, turned on Uptown without meeting with the group once (but met with the other group a few times).

If you were at the Council meeting on Tuesday, you heard lots of lies about Uptown Planners (False: majority of Uptown members is 70 years or older; that Mission Hills homeowners dominate Uptown Planners; that Uptown does not represent renters.)

This doesn’t need to be over. Contact the Mayor, your Councilmember or anyone else who can keep these questions at the forefront. The new group has 90 days to hold new elections.

Uptown Planners will meet on June 4th at 6 pm at the Joyce Beers Community Center in the Hub in Hillcrest. Please come to support Uptown Planners. uptownplannerssd.org.