Event Recap

January 8th Breakfast Meeting - New Urbanism 100 Years Ago

 

John Nolen, whose work in San Diego and other cities across the country during the early 1900s is often referred to as "Original Urbanism," believed in the creation of a pedestrian environment that takes full advantage of a community's natural attributes. During the meeting, panelists looked at the continued vibrancy and relevance of his work as well as how his plan for San Diego was implemented and how it can be interpreted for today.

"While San Diego hasn't implemented his plan as thoughtfully as other cities that he worked with, San Diego continues to implement elements of his plan in another fashion," Rich Brasher of Stantec Consulting said. "His relevance continues to guide planning here," he said, adding that many of Nolen's ideas can be seen in San Diego's major streets and thoroughfares, the harbor and waterfront development and in the park system. "Upgrades in downtown have been touched with Nolen's vision, and we will further look at ways we can introduce his work into downtown."

Vicki Estrada of Estrada Land Planning, who has worked on redevelopment and urban infill in San Diego, said that the city needs to look at the link to nature, specifically San Diego's plentiful canyons throughout the county and how to incorporate the canyons and nature in general into the design process. "Canyons are important," she said. "They can create great access points to the environment." The meeting gave a different insight into land use and future planning efforts and how history can be used to create community, smart growth and greater connectivity with our natural surroundings and neighborhoods. Nolen will be celebrated throughout the year with various organizations in San Diego.

February 12th Breakfast Meeting - Rethinking Parking

Speakers included Patrick Siegman, principal with Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates and Bill Anderson, director of city planning and community investment for the City of San Diego. The event was moderated by Russ Haley, vice president and chief financial officer of CityMark Development. "San Diego is very confused when it comes to parking," Haley said. "We are doing a better job in this city housing our cars instead of our people." As a developer, Haley noted that local parking requirements have led to costly delays in both commercial and residential development projects.

Siegman, whose firm is devoted specifically to creating "livable communities" and has conducted parking studies for numerous cities throughout the state of California, noted that San Diego, like other municipalities has numerous parking problems. He noted that a big part of the problem is that while San Diego has many parking lots, drivers choose to park in metered parking, causing them to circle the neighborhood bringing more congestion and harming air quality.

"Parking is one of those details that has a disproportionate effect on what kind of city we are going to be," Anderson said. "It is something that we need to look at as part of the neighborhood infrastructure."

The meeting posed many challenges that developers have in creating parking opportunities, but gave participants some alternate strategies think about when submitting plans and designing for future growth of a constantly expanding and evolving downtown.