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Planners Preparing for Population Boom in Downtown

Planners Preparing for Population Boom in Downtown

Development: Civic Center, North Embarcadero Among the Key Locations

BY RENE’E BEASLEY JONES

An urban planning firm has come up with three possible growth scenarios for Downtown San Diego.

One includes a residential population of more than 82,000 by 2025 , about 60,000 more than today’s head count.

Dyett & Bhatia, a San Francisco-based firm with an office in San Diego, prepared the report, which provides possible patterns of development for the Downtown core.

The Centre City Development Corp., the redevelopment agency for Downtown, hired the firm to help with CCDC’s community plan update. The 20-year plan, which is Downtown’s blueprint for the future, was last revised in 1992.

Downtown sits atop a 1,500-acre parcel, which is fairly large compared to other major cities, said Rajeev Bhatia, principal of Dyett & Bhatia.

The downtowns of Boston and Vancouver, British Columbia, contain about the same acreage, Bhatia said. Vancouver has 75,000 residents , and is growing.

San Diego could easily accommodate 60,000 more people, Bhatia said.

“A lot of cities are trying to find ways to get people to live downtown,” he said.

Gary London, president of the London Group Realty Advisors Inc., is a real estate analyst who lives and works in East Village. Because the three scenarios for Downtown were released only recently, London hasn’t formulated an opinion of which he likes best. But he’s pleased with any plan that concentrates on Broadway and C Street.

“To me, what has to happen over the next decade is we have to concentrate on key areas that have been essentially overlooked in the Downtown area,” London said. “They include the C Street corridor and Broadway corridor.”

The Civic Center remains key to C Street redevelopment, he said.

The North Embarcadero, a $150 million redevelopment project proposed for a stretch of bayfront from Seaport Village to Lindbergh Field, is another priority.

“It’s the living room of Downtown,” London said.

The three scenarios Dyett & Bhatia proposed include:

First Plan

This scenario calls for concentrated office development in a quarter-mile radius in the heart of Downtown. Housing is spread throughout the remaining seven villages.

For the estimated 82,000-person population, more than 42,000 new housing units would be needed. This scenario also calls for an additional 2 million square feet of retail space, 12.4 million square feet of office space, and more than 12,000 hotel rooms.

A face lift of Broadway would give that corridor more of a boulevard feel with public-gathering venues.

As opposed to a single, concentrated office core, the second plan offers two mixed-use cores in the Downtown and Columbia neighborhood. Higher-density housing would sit near the business district with lower-density housing in adjacent neighborhoods.

Bus and railway yards would be relocated from Downtown, creating space for a new neighborhood.

More than 36,000 new residential units would be needed. This plan includes another 2.3 million square feet of retail, 8.5 million square feet of office space, and 11,300 hotel rooms.

With this plan, the total population of Downtown could reach 74,100.

Close To Current Look

A third plan relies on a large multi-use core and a waterfront retail district.

Of the three plans, this one’s Downtown core most closely resembles today’s mixed-use center. Residential units would settle in surrounding neighborhoods. A mid-block stretch of Market Street would become a parkway lined with a combination of retail and residential.

More than 25,000 residential units will be needed. This alternative includes more retail and office space , 2.4 million square feet and 13.9 million square feet, respectively , than the other two plans.

Affordable housing remains an issue for San Diego. To date, the residential segment in the Downtown core has developed almost exclusively in the luxury range.

London doesn’t see much promise in the city’s core being a spot for affordable housing. Edge communities, such as Golden Hill and South Park, offer better bets, he said.

No one minds high density in the Downtown core, London said, but in the surrounding communities, they do.

He believes those neighborhoods may have to accept more density to support an affordable housing component for Downtown.

Contact Rene’e Beasley Jones via e-mail at

rbeasley@sdbj.com

or call her at (858) 277-6359, Ext. 109.

Centre City Development Corp. wants public input on the development of a preferred plan for Downtown. The public is asked to attend a meeting.

When: Wednesday, May 21, at 5:30 p.m.

Where: Downtown Information Center, 225 Broadway

View the plans: www.ccdc.com/planupdate/workingdocs.html

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