By David Harvey
SDUN Reporter
In July, the city revised the process used to update those plans—amid complaints that the community didn’t have enough input—by creating open-mic nights, changing meetings to discussion sessions, and preparing to hold several collaborative design sessions with planning committees.
So far, members of the planning committees say they have embraced the new format.
“I think the process is moving along better now,” Roger Lewis, a member of the Community Plan Update Advisory Committee in North Park, said. “It’s more focused and it’s more interactive with the community.”
Lewis said the new meeting format allows community members who have expertise in such areas as history, architecture and sustainability to offer pertinent guidance to the discussion.
The City Council adopted a new version of San Diego’s general plan in July 2009 after more than four years of drafting. The community revisions—going on throughout the county—are intended to bring the outdated community plans in line with the general plan, especially on topics of sustainability, said City Planner Marlon Pangilinan, project manager for plan updates in North Park and Uptown.
The city’s planning department decided to update the North Park, Golden Hill and Uptown plans simultaneously because of the congruity of the three communities, and because all three plans had surpassed their typical shelf life of 20 years, he added.
“Uptown was dealing with a lot of development that wasn’t allowed by the existing plan or zoning … so it was good to see what needed to be reevaluated,” Pangilinan said. “We also wanted to maximize our efforts, so we wanted to look at the surrounding communities and [decided to] do them as a cluster.”
The city proposed that each community’s plan update be reviewed and endorsed by a committee consisting of seven members of their respective community planning committees and various stakeholders appointed by the city—to diversify the expertise of the plan update committee.
The Greater Golden Hill Planning Committee adopted the city’s proposal, but Uptown Planners rejected the format and elected to have the entire 17-member planning committee retain sole voting authority over whether to endorse the new plans. North Park quickly followed suit.
While the drafting process has included feedback from the broader community in both Uptown and North Park, voting on whether to support the community plan will rest solely with the planning committees.
And while representatives of the communities said the North Park Planning Committee has taken a very hands-on approach to design—currently, they are assessing the goals and objectives of the old plans to see what should remain and what should be changed—the Uptown Planners are waiting for the first draft before providing feedback.
“In North Park, they’re looking at having more say in the draft and they sort of revised their process,” said Leo Wilson, chair of Uptown Planners. “Here in Uptown, although we’re contributing to [the community input], when we see the document, that will start the real community review process.”
Some of Uptown’s plan update committee members—such as Barry Hager, chair of Mission Hills Heritage—serve in advisory, rather than voting roles on the committee. Wilson said these members have been reaching out to Uptown’s five neighborhoods— Bankers Hill, Five Points, Hillcrest, Mission Hills and Park West—to get input on what the community expects from these plans.
According to Hager, Mission Hills Heritage had more than 100 participants attend a community meeting on Aug. 5 to learn about their proposals for the Mission Hills segment of Uptown’s new community plan.
“You can’t get 100 people to go attend an open mic meeting or a community plan update advisory committee meeting, but if you hold a community meeting in the community, then they’ll attend,” Hager said.
The budget for the three community plan updates totals just over $1.75 million, supplied by the city’s general fund and the communities’ redevelopment funds, Pangilinan said.
Pat Shields, chairperson of the Golden Hill committee, said the expense is unreasonable considering the state of the city’s budget.
“I would rather see that money spent on firefighters and code enforcement officers,” she said. “They’re making more code when we don’t have the money to enforce the code we have.”
Pangilinan said the process is not only timely, but that the city’s planning department is doing everything it can to keep the budget down, such as retaining most of the outreach, development and drafting of the community plans as city staff’s responsibility. Most of the funding is allotted for consultants who will provide city staff with technical expertise, he said.
“Normally each plan would cost around one or two million dollars itself, and we are trying to do three,” Pangilinan said. “Some people say this is the wrong time because of the budget, but this is the opportune time to plan, to create new visions for how communities want to grow, so when the economy picks up, the community will know where it wants to go.”
The plans’ first draft is scheduled for completion by early 2011.
Community Plan Update Advisory Committee meetings are held monthly and are open to the public. See below for locations and times for the meetings.
Greater Golden Hill
First Wednesdays, 6-8:30 p.m.
Balboa Park, War Memorial Room 3
3325 Zoo Dr. (west of Morley Field Drive and Park Boulevard)
Greater North Park
Third Wednesdays, 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Garfield Elementary School Auditorium
4487 Oregon St.
Uptown
Fourth Wednesdays, 6-8:30 p.m.
Balboa Park Club, Santa Fe Room
2150 Pan American Road
