{"id":244354,"date":"2011-06-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/workshop-on-proposed-north-park-mini-park-draws-crowd\/"},"modified":"2011-06-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T07:00:00","slug":"workshop-on-proposed-north-park-mini-park-draws-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/workshop-on-proposed-north-park-mini-park-draws-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Workshop on proposed North Park Mini-park draws crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Workshop<\/a>
\nPark would connect residential area and business district<\/p>\n

Por David Schwab |<\/strong> Reportero SDUN<\/p>\n

About 50 Uptown residents provided input during a five-hour, city-sponsored charrette\/workshop, Sat. June 4, on the proposed North Park Mini-Park.<\/p>\n

City engineers and planners heard their concerns, and will evaluate public comment over the next several weeks before returning to the community in September with a more detailed plan for what the redevelopment project might entail.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity input at these meetings will further refine the design of the mini-park and the associated streetscapes, said Pierrette Storey, senior city public information officer with the Engineering & Capital Projects Department, which is overseeing the project.<\/p>\n

The North Park Mini-Park and Associated Streetscape Improvements Project is proposed to include the half-acre urban parcel directly behind the existing Birch North Park Theatre, which includes the completion of the parking structure at North Park Way and 29th Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now it [the mini-park] is pretty much in the state where people are trying to envision what it might look like, feel like,\u201d said Liz Studebaker, executive director of North Park Main Street, the neighborhood\u2019s Business Improvement District (BID).<\/p>\n

Noting the project is in its formative stage, Studebaker talked about early public reaction to the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been positive or negative,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s pretty excited about turning a piece of empty asphalt into something that can be activated by the community. I don\u2019t think anyone is opposed to that general concept.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon Cohen, an immediate neighbor to the proposed mini-park, who also participated in the June 4 charrette\/workshop, agreed. \u201cAnything\u2019s better than a parking lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But, although Cohen favors the project in concept, he said he and others have some reservations.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur (breakout group) and two others proposed some radical changes to the streetscape as a way to deal with some ills we have in the community,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the design charrette we proposed making [the mini-park] more of a promenade, so it isn\u2019t a park in the middle of a city, but try and make it houses and businesses in the middle of a park. The more you make it feel like North Park is a park with residences and businesses within a park, the better experience we\u2019re going to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen said an advantage of the mini-park would be that it could provide multi-use space \u2014 a place people could eat lunch during the week and a venue for events on the weekend.<\/p>\n

But Cohen said there could be some disadvantages, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not excited about creating a space that might be a haven for drug or homeless activity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Redevelopment Agency has transferred the park parcel to the City of San Diego, and has contributed funding for a Streetscape Master Plan, which is to include design of a General Development Plan (GDP) for an approximate half-acre urban mini-park between Granada Avenue and 29th Street, along North Park Way.<\/p>\n

The location of the park is expected to provide a connection between residential neighborhoods to the south and the Business Dis-trict in which it is located.<\/p>\n

Mini-park amenities are yet to be determined through a community-input process at a later date.<\/p>\n

North Park Main Street\u2019s Studebaker talked about a few ideas for the park that are taking shape in residents\u2019 minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been discussion about having passive performance space, not necessarily a band shell or a stage, but some area to have gathering space for elementary school graduations or outdoor movie viewings in the summertime,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is a lot of momentum toward implementing that kind of asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Studebaker said residents have also expressed concern about landscaping for the proposed project being drought tolerant.<\/p>\n

Patrick Edwards, a North Park BID board member who participated in a group discussion at the June 4 charrette\/workshop is a business owner within the footprint of the proposed project. Edwards said providing ample green space is another major concern of some residents with project streetscaping.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe focused on the streetscapes as effectively being a larger area of impact in North Park,\u201d he said noting \u201ctake back the street\u201d was the slogan chosen by his charrette breakout group.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Park as a development is over 100 years old and before that it was an orchard,\u201d Edwards added. \u201cWe\u2019d like to get back to a greenscape with shade trees, reducing on-street parking, slowing traffic and creating increased pedestrian spaces including bike lanes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storey said the design of the GDP for the Park and the Streetscape Master Plan for the project are scheduled to be complete in the Spring of 2012. Construction will be scheduled as funding becomes available, and as maintenance funding for ongoing park and street operations is identified and secured.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Park would connect residential area and business district By Dave Schwab | SDUN Reporter About 50 Uptown residents provided input during a five-hour, city-sponsored charrette\/workshop, Sat. June 4, on the proposed North Park Mini-Park. City engineers and planners heard their concerns, and will evaluate public comment over the next several weeks before returning to the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Workshop on proposed North Park Mini-park draws crowd","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}