Along the Sunset Cliffs Boulevard corridor and just beyond the Ocean Beach entryway sits an empty, mostly concrete lot, fenced off from the rest of the community. But thriving in the bed of concrete and dirt are budding yellow wildflowers and tall stalks of what look like corn.
The stubborn plants survived a bulldozing and remain as some of the last remnants of a community garden ” a neighborhood park of sorts ” that seemingly popped up from nowhere and flourished about five or six years ago, according to the recollection of some OB residents.
“It was very impromptu. People came together to create a greenspace in a dirt lot,” said Jim Kase, an Ocean Beach resident.
Kase works at the Ocean Beach People’s Organic Foods Market on Voltaire Street on the corner opposite from the former community garden.
He said he remembers visiting the garden with his young daughter and seeing locals enjoying the garden park that sprouted right from the heart of the community.
Kase said he remembers the day a friend called to warn him that bulldozers were about to raze the lot. He was working in San Ysidro at the time and rushed to the corner at the 2200 block of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard to grab a ficus tree he had planted with his daughter.
He said he saved the tree, which he then planted in front of his home on Long Branch Avenue.
Now, years later, attached to the fence around the lot is a sun-beaten notice posted in January by the city, alerting the public that a company plans to put some offices or other commercial space on the lot.
Listed as the owner of the property is World Oil Marketing Co., based in South Gate, according to Morris Dye, a project manager with the city of San Diego.
According to MacRae’s Blue Book online industrial directory, the company deals in petroleum refinement, paving mixtures and waste material recycling.
Several calls to World Oil Marketing Co. to flesh out plan details went unreturned in time for publication.
The project currently under review with the city calls for the construction of about 6,500 square feet of commercial space and about 312 square feet of outdoor covered seating area, Dye said. But exact plans for that corner of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and Voltaire Street, a significant intersection through the corridor running into Ocean Beach, remains a mystery.
Landry Watson, chair of the Ocean Beach Community Planning Board, said he’s been waiting for the company to come before the board since he heard of the January notice.
The city usually recommends project developers come before the local community planning board before moving forward with a project, Dye said.
World Oil Marketing Co. would come before the OB community planning board if it needed permission to build around municipal code restrictions.
Based on the recommendation of the planning board and compliance with city regulation, the project could then move forward, Dye said.
Until then, except for a few flowers and stalks, the lot remains empty.
Before the impromptu community garden sprouted years ago, some residents remember the lot was once home to a recycling center. Before that it was home to a gas station.
Kase said he would rather see office space there than another gas station.