Anthony King | Downtown Assistant Editor

Voice of San Diego CEO Scott Lewis sat down with the city’s new Planning Director Bill Fulton at Politifest Aug. 3 in Point Loma to talk about one of the things the former mayor of Ventura, Calif. was hired for: planning neighborhoods.

The discussion touched on several general topics, including the status of current Community Plan Updates, issues of density and infrastructure and the proposed lid over state Route 94.

First however, Fulton laid out exactly why he chose to stay in the position after the sexual-harassment scandal that marred Mayor Bob Filner’s last two months in office, which saw several other Filner appointees leave.

“La visión que se ha establecido para centrarse en los vecindarios y revitalizar algunos de los vecindarios que se han pasado por alto, esos desafíos permanecen y son tan relevantes y significativos como siempre”, dijo Fulton. “No quiero alejarme de eso”.

Filner appointed Fulton planning director in June, and Fulton moved into the position July 8, four weeks before the Politifest discussion and almost two months before Filner’s resignation was final. Fulton is a nationally recognized urban planning expert, publisher of the California Planning & Development Report and, most recently, the former vice president of Smart Growth America, a think tank that promotes urban development.

“The challenges and the opportunities that I was presented with when the Mayor asked me to take that job, those are unchanged,” Fulton said.

It was smart growth – a term used to describe denser neighborhoods surrounding amenities like businesses and transit instead of suburban sprawl – that Lewis initially discussed, moving into a conversation about existing community plans.

San Diego is currently updating nine community plans, which will in turn direct the city’s overall General Plan. There are four Community Plan Updates in Uptown – the Greater Gold Hill Community Plan, North Park Community Plan, Old Town Plan and Uptown Community Plan – and several in South San Diego, including the Barrio Logan, Encanto, Otay Mesa and San Ysidro community plans. Ocean Beach is also being updated, among others.

Los planes proporcionarán un "marco para el futuro", dijo Fulton, tanto para la "inversión pública como para el desarrollo privado" en las comunidades.

“En mi mente, haremos grandes planes. Vamos a escuchar a la comunidad”, dijo. “Algunas comunidades estarán más interesadas en tener más desarrollo que otras, y eso está bien. Enfocaremos ese desarrollo adicional en los lugares correctos tanto como podamos”.

One of the biggest obstacles in planning for San Diego’s future is the city’s current infrastructure deficit, or backlog of larger capital projects that Community Plans can address. Some estimate the deficit reaches over $890 million, and Fulton called it the “single-biggest challenge” in the region’s growth.

“If we are going to put additional growth in the right locations in the neighborhoods, mostly in transit-rich locations around the city, we’re going to have to address the infrastructure problem as well,” he said.

In Uptown, with some community planners eschewing higher density and growth, Fulton said it was better to be prepared for what he said was inevitable.

“En mi experiencia de 30 años en California, lo que he descubierto es que cuando una comunidad trata de negar que va a haber crecimiento, fracasa”, dijo Fulton. "Simplemente tratar de negar que va a suceder, generalmente significa que sucederá de todos modos, y no sucederá tan bien como podría".

Fulton worked on the North Park Update several years ago as a consultant, and now lives in Little Italy. He said he is “intensely involved in the communities and neighborhoods,” every day.

“Nuestro objetivo es equilibrar los intereses de cada barrio con los intereses de la ciudad como un agujero”, dijo. También dijo que su objetivo era hacer avanzar los planes más rápido y hacer que los planes aborden los cambios con mayor eficacia.

Heading into Downtown, for example, Fulton acknowledged that a lid or cap over SR 94, as part of the planned Express Lanes Project, was something residents really want.

“Eso es algo que está en discusión. Es algo muy costoso de hacer”, dijo, y agregó que en Ventura se está considerando una propuesta similar. “A medida que avanzamos y construimos más cosas, eso... puede ayudar a reparar nuestros vecindarios, en lugar de dañarlos aún más”.