Former Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) chairman Hal Sadler resigned from the seven-member board that oversees downtown development and planning in December after five years of service. He has since returned to his architectural roots at the firm he started almost 50 years ago, Tucker Sadler Architects.
As a leader at the CCDC and an architect designing many of downtown’s buildings, Sadler, 75, has had a hand in the shape and direction of growth in center city. At the CCDC, Sadler reviewed projects such as the $474 million Petco Park stadium, thousands of housing units and the recently approved downtown Community Plan update, which attempts to accommodate growth and development in the area over the next 20 years.
Sadler chaired the Community Plan update for three years and coordinated the input of hundreds involved in the process. He describes the plan as a roadmap for our future that addresses concerns of density, recreational park space and affordable housing.
“No plan is perfect; it has to be flexible to move and change in future years,” Sadler said. “But I think it’s a tremendous tool to depend upon for the years ahead.”
With the population expected to increase downtown from 27,000 residents to 90,000 by 2030, and the number of workers to grow from 75,000 to 165,000, parking and transportation will be a major issue. Sadler is convinced that these problems cannot be overcome with parking lots and structures. The parking ratio has gone down from two vehicles per bedroom because people no longer need their cars, Sadler said. He hopes downtown takes a cue from San Francisco, where public transportation is more accessible.
“You could cover the whole city with parking,” Sadler said of the demand for spots. “San Diego has a greater requirement than most [cities] because we just don’t want to give up cars, but there has to be a way to utilize public transportation to a heavier degree.”
Also in high demand and limited supply is public park space. In order to retain the six parks included in the updated plan, density requirements for developers were loosened to allow for higher buildings with more people at the tune of $15 per square foot on all floors above the normal limit. The changes were added to the plan by Mayor Jerry Sanders after it was discovered that the parks lacked $90 million in funding.
“Instead of being restricted to a floor ratio of six, we’re now up in the neighborhood of eight, ten, 12, and even higher in certain areas,” Sadler said of the requirements. He argues that increased density requires more parks, which serve as “breathable space for people to play, to work, to rest.”
The City Council approved the downtown Community Plan update in a 6-2 vote on Feb. 28. Councilmembers Donna Frye and Jim Madaffer were opposed, saying the plan lacked sufficient environmental impact studies and thorough analysis of Sander’s last-minute changes, respectively.While much remains to be built downtown, an equally impressive amount of construction has already taken place, turning a once blighted area into a hot spot for big-city entertainment. Among the most contentious projects that Sadler faced at the CCDC was the Padres’ ballpark. The costly development stirred up frustrations over guaranteed greenbelts that were eventually settled by the City Council.
“It’s more than a ballpark, and I think that’s really been proven,” Sadler said. “It caused so much of the growth in the east village.”
Sadler has made his mark on the downtown landscape by designing many high-rise structures with Tucker Sadler Architects, including Union Bank, Security Pacific National Bank, Bank of America, the Metropolitan Correction Center and expansions to the San Diego Convention Center. Sadler describes the center as a prime example of a design that embraces outside and local aspects of the city that can be shared with visitors and tourists.
Sadler would like to see newer generations of architects push the envelope with increasingly creative projects.
“My hope,” he said, “is that we will find a way to be more experimental, more open and we will see some far more innovative buildings that what we are doing now.”
As the CCDC’s chairman and representative architect, Sadler attempted to maintain a high standard of design for the projects that came before him. He regrets not demanding more from developers, despite having rejected and changed many plans.
“I wish I’d had been tougher on a lot of the developers and then we might have had some stronger buildings,” he said.
Nonetheless, Sadler’s tenure at the CCDC reached its expiration date when Mayor Jerry Sanders was sworn in last December. Sadler had long spoke of resigning once a new mayor replaced Dick Murphy.
“The great opportunity that I had as chairman was to be involved at a tremendous time of expansion and recognition of the city as being as special “¦ as we had dreamed it was,” he said.
Sadler plans to spend time traveling and with his family, although he has returned to Tucker Sadler Architects to dabble in design sans the heavy workload and pressure of a full-time position. Prior to taking a seat on the CCDC, Sadler resigned from the firm and sold all stocks.