Park would connect residential area and business district

By Dave Schwab | SDUN Reporter

About 50 Uptown residents provided input during a five-hour, city-sponsored charrette/workshop, Sat. June 4, on the proposed North Park Mini-Park.

City engineers and planners heard their concerns, and will evaluate public comment over the next several weeks before returning to the community in September with a more detailed plan for what the redevelopment project might entail.

“Community input at these meetings will further refine the design of the mini-park and the associated streetscapes, said Pierrette Storey, senior city public information officer with the Engineering & Capital Projects Department, which is overseeing the project.

The North Park Mini-Park and Associated Streetscape Improvements Project is proposed to include the half-acre urban parcel directly behind the existing Birch North Park Theatre, which includes the completion of the parking structure at North Park Way and 29th Street.

“Right now it [the mini-park] is pretty much in the state where people are trying to envision what it might look like, feel like,” said Liz Studebaker, executive director of North Park Main Street, the neighborhood’s Business Improvement District (BID).

Noting the project is in its formative stage, Studebaker talked about early public reaction to the project.

“It hasn’t been positive or negative,” she said. “Everybody’s pretty excited about turning a piece of empty asphalt into something that can be activated by the community. I don’t think anyone is opposed to that general concept.”

Brandon Cohen, an immediate neighbor to the proposed mini-park, who also participated in the June 4 charrette/workshop, agreed. “Anything’s better than a parking lot,” he said.

But, although Cohen favors the project in concept, he said he and others have some reservations.

“Our (breakout group) and two others proposed some radical changes to the streetscape as a way to deal with some ills we have in the community,” he said. “In the design charrette we proposed making [the mini-park] more of a promenade, so it isn’t a park in the middle of a city, but try and make it houses and businesses in the middle of a park. The more you make it feel like North Park is a park with residences and businesses within a park, the better experience we’re going to have.”

Cohen said an advantage of the mini-park would be that it could provide multi-use space — a place people could eat lunch during the week and a venue for events on the weekend.

But Cohen said there could be some disadvantages, too.

“We’re not excited about creating a space that might be a haven for drug or homeless activity,” he said.

The Redevelopment Agency has transferred the park parcel to the City of San Diego, and has contributed funding for a Streetscape Master Plan, which is to include design of a General Development Plan (GDP) for an approximate half-acre urban mini-park between Granada Avenue and 29th Street, along North Park Way.

The location of the park is expected to provide a connection between residential neighborhoods to the south and the Business Dis-trict in which it is located.

Mini-park amenities are yet to be determined through a community-input process at a later date.

North Park Main Street’s Studebaker talked about a few ideas for the park that are taking shape in residents’ minds.

“There’s been discussion about having passive performance space, not necessarily a band shell or a stage, but some area to have gathering space for elementary school graduations or outdoor movie viewings in the summertime,” she said. “There is a lot of momentum toward implementing that kind of asset.”

Studebaker said residents have also expressed concern about landscaping for the proposed project being drought tolerant.

Patrick Edwards, a North Park BID board member who participated in a group discussion at the June 4 charrette/workshop is a business owner within the footprint of the proposed project. Edwards said providing ample green space is another major concern of some residents with project streetscaping.

“We focused on the streetscapes as effectively being a larger area of impact in North Park,” he said noting “take back the street” was the slogan chosen by his charrette breakout group.

“North Park as a development is over 100 years old and before that it was an orchard,” Edwards added. “We’d like to get back to a greenscape with shade trees, reducing on-street parking, slowing traffic and creating increased pedestrian spaces including bike lanes.”

Storey said the design of the GDP for the Park and the Streetscape Master Plan for the project are scheduled to be complete in the Spring of 2012. Construction will be scheduled as funding becomes available, and as maintenance funding for ongoing park and street operations is identified and secured.