Let the Hill Be Great: A World Class Park That Lifts Up All of Southeast San Diego

FROM THIS

TO THIS (and more!)

STOP the short-sighted plan to build 123 homes atop the most iconic hill in our community. Radio Towers Hill offers a breathtaking 360-degree panoramic view—one of the most stunning vantage points in all of San Diego—and it should belong to everyone, not just a few homeowners. The hill is now under the threat. The proposed project for placement on it is based on the shameful “Footnote 7,” which targeted southeastern neighborhoods to remove our last chance at expansive public green space. The footnote was removed from the municipal zoning code in March 2025 after huge public outcry. Yet this project is still being allowed to proceed using that very footnote.

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing law requires that cities locate quality low-income housing where there are existing high resources (like La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Torrey Pines & Scripps Ranch) and to bring high resource amenities to areas where the residents currently have lower median incomes and less access to resources (like Emerald Hills, Encanto, Memorial, Mt. Hope & Valencia Park).  That's why we call for a world-class destination park on that hill—with mounted telescopes, cafés, green space, culture, trails, and outdoor event spaces—that will bring to the Imperial, Euclid, Logan, Federal, and Market corridors the same level of maintenance, tidiness, beautification, access to health-supporting green space, and retail investment seen in communities north of Interstate Highway 8.

The city of San Diego has a revenue problem. This park would generate income for at least several decades.

This is a once-in-several-generations chance to maximize the value of this land as a revenue-generating, public-private partnership that brings:

✅ Local jobs
✅ Family recreation
✅ Black economic opportunity
✅ Beauty and visibility to our neighborhoods

Black San Diego military families, locked out of the GI Bill dream after WWII and the Korean War, built this community from the ground up—especially around Radio Towers Hill—when Emerald Hills finally opened to them. We’ve been asking for a park on this site since 1978. In that time, every other large parcel has been taken to stack us in like sardines. Now, out-of-town developers want to bury our last chance to level up—with the same tired tactics that keep our community under-resourced and overburdened.

47 years is shamefully late. We must work to make sure it's not too late.

Let’s harness the full power of this historic hill—for joy, justice, and a future. HOLD THE HILL. BUILD THE PARK!

Southeastern Improvement Coalition    Contact the author of the petition