Nearly 75 percent of Barrio Logan is Hispanic.

Barrio Logan leaders have spent years fighting for a better community plan, one that doesn't let polluting industries overlap with homes. It's finally paying off.

The San Diego Planning Commission is recommending that the city approve the 2021 Community Plan Update, which covers 1,000 acres between downtown, I-5 and San Diego Bay.

Roughly half that land is taken up by Naval Station San Diego and Port Tidelands, so conflicts were inevitable.

Jennifer Case (second from right), CEO of a New Leaf, a biodiesel company that wants to expand, but is limited to a 20 percent increase under the plan.

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The plan builds off one adopted in 2013 that created a transition zone to separate homes and industry. It was repealed not long after by a citywide referendum vote. The update began with this fought-over zone between the Port of San Diego and the neighborhood.

Other key elements include more separated bike lanes, new restrictions on more truck routes on community streets, and an arts and culture element. There will be eight new parks, and links to regional bikeways.

"I have to say that this has been a very happy day for me, for the planning group, and for the community," said Mark Steel, the Barrio Logan planning chair.

"The 1978 plan was woefully inadequate and allowed a lot more degradation of the community." He refers to it as "the Houston plan; you can do anything, anywhere you want to."

Since the area is entirely within the coastal zone, the plan will need to be approved by the coastal commission.

Over time, the industrial uses, freeway and truck exhaust fouled the air, sending asthma rates up – not to mention the occasional crash-landing of a vehicle from the bridge above.

Nearly 75 percent of Barrio Logan is Hispanic, sparking claims of environmental racism woven into historic land-use patterns.

Environmental health advocates, industry, and community planning group members sparred over the issue of a buffer between homes and industry until May 2020, when they signed an agreement, a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, that Steel says "resolved all the issues around the transition zone."

The majority of the 2021 plan is carried forward from 2013, with the primary changes applying to a 65-acre MOU area where, for some businesses, it might as well be yesterday.

"We are smack dab right in the middle of the re-zone," said Jennifer Case, CEO of a New Leaf, a biodiesel company that wants to expand, but is limited to a 20 percent increase under the plan.

The goods movements will continue to use fossil fuels, she said, "unless we provide an alternative, and that's what New Leaf produces."

Case asked that New Leaf, which converts spent cooking oil, be exempted from the re-zone until 2045. It's a bridge fuel until electrification of the heavy duty fleet, and prevents the kitchen oil from being trucked out, she said.

Julie Corrales, a policy director at the Environmental Health Coalition, said New Leaf benefits the region, but not its immediate neighbors. "They want to potentially take over several blocks," on land that could be used for homes, parks and small businesses, Corrales said.

"Any increase in their business will bring more trucks that are not zero emission, and compound" the severe issues with air quality in Barrio Logan.

"The truck route is constantly being violated, and needs to be strengthened," Corrales said. We see diesel and full-size semi trucks drive by my home. They pass in front of Perkins Elementary School."

Even under the updated plan, truck regulations will continue to exempt existing businesses and their truck routes, including to the Port.

The planning commission approved the draft with only a minor change to help facilitate more protected bike lanes, and agreed to look into a freeway cap that could help shield the Barrio from I-5.

Since the area is entirely within the coastal zone, the plan will need to be approved by the coastal commission. Steel said they hope to get it through the city council by the end of the year.

"Time is of the essence in this community."