Residents weigh in on new park

By Dave Schwab

East Village residents got the opportunity to review suggested design alternatives for East Village Green Park at the second of three public workshops held June 23 at the Quartyard on Market Street.

As Downtown’s most dense neighborhood, a section of East Village is proposed to be transformed in phases into a 4.1-acre, multi-block park bounded by 13th, F, 15th, and G streets.

East Village Green is an important component of the Downtown parks and open space plan. It is intended to provide an engaging and interactive place for residents, employees and visitors to play, gather and participate in community events.

Residents young and old, many walking dogs, turned out at the June 23 workshop to review and vote among three offered park-design alternatives:

• An “Urban Village” concept concentrating public amenities on the west block and catering to the needs of dog owners along G Street.
• A “Central Green” concept organized around a central, multi-purpose lawn buffering it from the street while enhancing streetscape and connecting the park to nearby restored historic homes.
• A “Garden on the Green” concept organizing the west block around a large children’s area and a multi-use lawn adjacent to 14th Street.

“The three options are slightly different,” said Ricardo Rabines, an architect with the firm Safdie Rabines, which is designing East Village Green.

“The Central Green is in the center of the block celebrating the fold in the middle. The Urban Village, an open space in the center surrounded by buildings, is much more like a square, urban open grid. And the Garden Green is a series of walks that move around with a central garden, like a central park,” he said.

Rabines said the second workshop’s purpose was to present Downtown residents with clear-cut park design choices, and then ask people to reveal the ones they feel “more comfortable” with.

“All of them [the alternatives] address the same issues,” Rabines said, noting that they’re likely to have the same amenities too.

“We have an underground parking garage,” he said. “We have a community center, a pool, restrooms, a dog park and an outside amphitheater with a stage for performances or to host big public events.”

“It is good,” said East Village resident Mike Madigan about the East Village Green planning so far. Madigan is a consultant and member of The East Village Association, Inc., a nonprofit managing the East Village Business Improvement District.

“But, these things take a long time,” Madigan cautioned.

A 40-year veteran of planning Downtown, Madigan said development in East Village is much better than he and other planners thought it would be 40 years ago.

“We had set our goals not extremely high, because it was so difficult to do anything here,” he said.

Asked what he’d most like to see done with East Village Green today, Madigan offered his input.

“You need some multi-purpose lawn area, whether it’s for people having lunch, or a soccer team playing or people walking their dogs at night or to have a party on the weekends,” he said.

Besides adding green lawn space, Madigan said the next most important thing was for the new development to have security.

“Eyes on the park the whole time it’s open,” he said, adding it is the only way to ensure park space is properly used and that problems are avoided.

Madigan is also encouraged by East Village Green planning. He hopes the development will change Downtown’s demographics.

“One of the hardest things to do Downtown has been to bring young people with families here, and to create places for adults to go while they’re supervising their kids,” he said.

Gary Smith, another East Village neighbor reviewing park design concepts at the June 23 workshop, felt choices being offered were “fantastic,” but he had a caveat.

“I don’t think they’ve been quite imaginative enough,” Smith said. “They should be using robotic parking [in an underground facility] because it’s a lot safer.”

Mark Caro, a senior planner and landscape architect for Civic San Diego — which is spearheading East Village Green redevelopment — discussed a timetable for the first phase of the project, the city-owned, 20,000-square-foot portion of the block bounded by 14th Street.

“A general development plan could be completed and approved by this fall,” Caro said. “Construction drawings would then take a year to a year and a half which takes us to 2017. Then a year to 18 months of construction, which brings us to 2018-19.”

Funding — and timing — of development for subsequent phases are uncertain now, said Caro, who noted portions of those lots where park space is to be developed are privately owned by Smart & Final and SDG&E, and would require negotiations to acquire them.

“The project is designed to be built in phases, knowing that we may not get to these for some time,” Caro said.

For more information about the project, visit eastvillagegreen.com.

— Dave Schwab can be reached at [email protected].