Regional leaders lobbying in Washington for central transit hub, new border crossing, other infrastructure

More than 140 business and civic leaders from San Diego are in Washington, D.C. this week lobbying federal officials for help with local infrastructure projects, upgrades to the Mexican border and economic initiatives.

The group is focused particularly on 19 priority infrastructure projects that could be funded by the $1.2 trillion federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. They include a new border crossing and a central transit hub near the airport.

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Some members of the group met Monday morning with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to discuss those projects and how they could help bolster San Diego’s economy.

Other priorities include water recycling projects throughout the region, upgrading the airport, rail projects, wildfire prevention, low-income housing vouchers and broadband internet in low-income areas.

The bill also includes money for road projects, cybersecurity and climate projects, such as alleviating heat islands by planting more trees in urban areas that lack parks and greenspace.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said regional leaders need to fight together to make sure the nation’s eighth-largest city gets its fair share.

“It’s a real all-star cast of San Diegans helping to make our case to our federal partners,” he said. “It’s important for us to be here to really assert ourselves in terms of our size.”

Jerry Sanders, chief executive of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, said it serves San Diego well to have leaders from various local cities and organizations on the chamber’s annual trip to Washington.

Officials on the trip include Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear, airport Chief Executive Kim Becker, Imperial Beach Councilmember Paloma Aguirre and Tijuana Councilmember Juan Carlos Hank.

“With such a large and diverse group, we’re not just telling our nation’s leaders that these issues are important to our region, we’re showing them that it matters to all of us,” he said.

Blakespear, who is serving as chair of the San Diego Association of Governments, said another key project that needs federal aid is a plan to underground train tracks in Del Mar that have become vulnerable to disintegrating bluffs.

The chamber, Gloria and other groups formed a Regional Infrastructure Implementation Working Group shortly after the final approval of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The goal of the working group is to lobby with one regional voice for projects eligible for the new funding. That’s why they have identified 19 priority projects.

Because cities and other government agencies will be competing against each other for much of the money over the next decade, officials say it’s crucial to have a comprehensive strategy that evaluates which city projects fit with which pools of federal money.