{"id":232980,"date":"2015-07-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/civita-park-ready-to-break-ground\/"},"modified":"2015-07-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T07:00:00","slug":"civita-park-ready-to-break-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/civita-park-ready-to-break-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Civita Park: Listo para comenzar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Ken Williams | Editor<\/p>\n

The groundbreaking for the much-anticipated Civita Park is scheduled for this month and will add 17 acres of public parkland in Mission Valley, the developer says.<\/p>\n

Near the crest of the multi-level park \u2014 which rises over 165 feet \u2014 will be a large man-made waterfall that will be part of a \u201cnew creek\u201d cascading down the hillside and through the heart of the massive Civita development north of Friars Road and east of Mission Center Road, stretching all the way to Interstate 805.<\/p>\n

The park\u2019s southern edge will be anchored by Celebration Plaza, a large space for public gatherings. Nearby will be an 8,000-square-foot Civic Center, which will include community meeting space as well as a museum to showcase the history of Mission Valley and the nearby San Diego River.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A computer simulation shows the west view of Celebration Plaza at Civita Park, scheduled to open about a year from now. (Courtesy of civitalife.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the middle of the park will be another public plaza, complete with a comfort station and an homage to the neighborhood\u2019s past as a mining quarry.<\/p>\n

Work on the park is expected to take up to 10 months, and then there will be a two-month wait to allow the new landscape to take root. The park\u2019s opening is estimated to be a year away, said Marco A. Sessa, senior vice president of Sudberry Properties, and the principal\/partner in charge of all aspects of the development process for the Civita mixed-use community.<\/p>\n

\u201cCivita Park will have something for just about everyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sessa rattled off a list of park amenities, including an amphitheater, a military memorial, a playground for children, a couple of tot lots, meditative nooks, climbing walls, basketball and volleyball courts, life-size chess game, picnic areas, a community garden, and display gardens based on color, scents and attractions for butterflies and bees.<\/p>\n

Walking and jogging trails will connect the green areas to the various communities surrounding the park. Each community in the 230-acre urban village will have \u201cfinger parks\u201d leading directly to Civita Park.<\/p>\n

Another 10 acres of green space devoted to easements will feed into Civita Park, bring a total of 27 acres of open land, Sessa said. This \u201ccentral park\u201d will be the key element unifying the various communities within the Civita development, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was important to us because it creates public access from our neighborhoods to our park,\u201d Sessa said.<\/p>\n

Civita Creek \u2014 the man-made stream that will mark the western boundary of the park \u2014 is designed to be a \u201cdry creek\u201d during times of drought or when there is little runoff from Serra Mesa, the neighboring community on the northern rim of Mission Valley that overlooks the Civita development. \u201cIt is designed to look nice even when it is dry,\u201d Sessa said.<\/p>\n

Originally, Civita Park was going to have a large recirculating fountain as its signature attraction. But the Audubon Society and other environmental groups, Sessa said, \u201cchallenged us to think outside the box\u201d because a recirculating fountain is not practical during a drought.<\/p>\n

\"(l<\/a>
(l to r) The current view of the future Civita Park, atop the hillside where the man-made waterfall is starting to be built. The future Recreation Center will be located about where the trailer is on the left. (Photo by Ken Williams) The computer simulation shows the southeast aerial view of Civita Park from above the waterfall. The park\u2019s museum, amphitheater and Celebration Plaza can be found in the upper right hand side. (Courtesy of civitalife.com)
[Click to enlarge.]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Instead, Sessa described an engineering marvel that will allow the creek to function as a bioswale to deal with some of the water runoff coming from Serra Mesa. Work to create the creek and waterfall has already begun. He said the runoff is separated into three sets of pipes: a small one, a medium pipe for normal runoff, and a large pipe for heavy rains typical during late winter and spring. The engineers will not utilize the large pipe, which will remain underground and funnel heavy runoff to the San Diego River to avoid flooding in the Civita communities; nor the smaller pipe containing \u201curban slobber,\u201d as he put it, which comes from commercial uses such as car washes and laundries. Sessa said Civita Creek will only utilize the middle pipe, containing the cleanest runoff.<\/p>\n

The runoff will go through several purification steps during its journey to source the waterfall, then flow downhill via the creek to what Sessa called a \u201creclaimed water treatment plant\u201d at the foot of the development along Friars Road. He said the idea is to create a dam, which will look similar to Old Mission Dam in Mission Trails Regional Park, to capture the water for recirculation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will use 250,000 gallons to cover our irrigation needs,\u201d Sessa said.<\/p>\n

The waterfall is expected to become a landmark for the Civita development and a main attraction in the park, but because of its steepness will not be used for cooling off on a hot summer\u2019s day, he said.<\/p>\n

The city of San Diego Parks and Recreation board has approved the design for Civita Park, Sessa said, adding that he is in final negotiations with the park\u2019s designer. The exact date of the groundbreaking was still up in the air at press time.<\/p>\n

\u2014Ken Williams es editor de Mission Valley News y San Diego Uptown News y puede ser contactado en <\/em>ken@sdcnn.com<\/em><\/a> o al 619-961-1952.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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