By Hutton Marshall | Editor

Early next year, San Diego County’s largest YMCA facility will open in one of the region’s most underserved neighborhoods.

For the last 56 years, the Copley Family YMCA operated near the intersection of Landis and 40th streets. In late January, thanks to a massive, 3.7-acre land donation by Price Charities, a considerably more expansive facility will replace it a short distance away at the intersection of Fairmount Drive and El Cajon Boulevard. The Copley-Price Family YMCA clocks in at 53,000 square feet, nearly double the size of the Copley Family YMCA.

While Copley-Price’s recreational facilities will be a big step up from the previous City Heights location, Y staff and community members are excited by something more significant than the opportunity to get a better workout. Several close to the project speak to the facility’s potential to transform the community, offering services crucial to City Heights families.

Courtney Harrness, who will oversee Copley-Price’s programming and day-to-day operations as its executive manager, said the opportunity to open such an immense YMCA in a historically underserved neighborhood like City Heights is a rare occurrence, one that presents a great opportunity for those involved.

“You don’t find YMCAs like Copley-Price in the city,” he said. “It’s not quite a social experiment, but it’s a commitment to social change.”

Many of the social and family services will be geared toward family services and healthy living. A large demonstration kitchen will offer classes on healthy cooking and nutrition. Much of the floor plan is devoted to a childcare center, three preschool classrooms and a massive teen center.

“It’s the biggest teen center that I’ve seen at any YMCA anywhere,” Harrness said.

The teen center will include a lounge, a homework area and a computer lab, which is also open to other members. Membership is required to access the center, but the Y’s Teen Incentive Program will allow adolescents to earn free membership through documented classwork improvement and community service.

Hoover High School is just a few blocks down the street, and both Harrness and Hoover Principal Joe Austin said the two entities plan to work together extensively. Copley-Price will open at 5 a.m., an hour earlier than originally planned, to accommodate the schedules of teachers wishing to exercise before work.

Austin, who began as Hoover’s principal in February after running a neighboring elementary school, said the new Y will be “a huge boon for the kids at Hoover.”

“Every day I drive past it and I just can’t wait,” Austin said. “It’s going to transform this community. I really feel like it’s going to be a centerpiece in City Heights.

“There’s just nothing about it that I’m not in love with frankly,” he added.

Copley-Price will lie on the cusp of City Heights, Kensington and Talmadge. For decades, El Cajon Boulevard has served as something of a boundary line between City Heights and the latter two neighborhoods, which are notably whiter and wealthier by comparison. With 74,000 residents occupying just four square miles, City Heights is the most densely populated community in San Diego. Plus, 36 different languages are spoken there, making it among the most ethnically diverse communities in San Diego as well.

Kensington and Talmadge, on the other hand, are 63 percent white, according to an analysis of 2000 census data by SANDAG. That’s more than double the white percentage in City Heights.

Harrness, who recently moved to San Diego after working at a YMCA in Boston, said his previous facility was located on the border between two communities with a household income gap similar to City Heights and its northern neighbors. He said he’s seen evidence that the YMCA has the power to bridge the two culturally disconnected communities.

“We always say ‘when you get everyone in workout clothes … it’s really hard to tell who’s who, and who has what, and who doesn’t have what,’” Harrness said. “So in Boston, I saw people talking to each other in the Y that would never have run into each other outside of it. Their paths would never have crossed.”

In 1994, Price Philanthropies began the City Heights Initiative. The comprehensive redevelopment project focuses on everything from education to housing to business development to health initiatives. Donating the parcel of land for the new YMCA facility is just one of many large financial contributions made to improve the quality of life among City Heights residents.

“The new Y should accomplish several things to that end,” wrote Price spokesperson Derryl Acosta in an email. “It will be a gathering place for residents of three communities (City Heights, Talmadge, Kensington). It improves the community’s physical appearance. It expands child care, after-school tutoring, health education, recreation, etc. It also expands the job market.”

The opening of Copley-Price will closely coincide with the closing of two neighboring YMCAs in Downtown and Mission Valley’s Hazard Center. The YMCA of San Diego County, the regional, umbrella organization, is divided into smaller geographical clusters of facilities, so the ebb and flow of these facilities is deliberate.

Futhermore, members of the nearby Mission Valley YMCA will be able to use the Copley-Price YMCA — or any other YMCA for that matter — since Mission Valley memberships are priced at a regional level.

Copley-Price’s mission to build up the community also factors in to its membership model. It will offer up to 50 percent off discounts for low-income residents, and it will set aside a large portion of funding — Harrness estimated around $400,000 — to help families pay for membership fees. He said this stems from the YMCA’s commitment to inclusion.

One key staff member at Copley-Price is still absent from the roster: its executive director. In addition to overseeing Copley-Price as a whole, the executive director is responsible for community outreach, fundraising and external relations, an incredibly important position for an entity already planting deep roots in the community. YMCA staff said they hope to hire an executive director in early 2015.

But with or without an executive director, Copley-Price will open its doors to the community shortly after the start of the new year. Harrness said he expects people will be taken aback on their first visit.

“The perfect word is ‘grandiose,’” he said. “It’s so over the top and that’s exactly what we want to do. We want every single thing we do to be over the top — every single experience to be amazing. We want people to walk in the door and be blown away, then walk away thinking ‘this is an amazing place. This is awesome.’”

—Contact Hutton Marshall at [email protected].