The city of San Diego is exploring possibilities to revitalize or replace the city’s civic center, unveiling a new coalition to guide implementation and project planning.
The three-organization coalition, featuring the Downtown San Diego Partnership (DSDP) and the Prebys Foundation and a consulting firm, have completed a visionary roadmap establishing the implementation pathway for revitalizing the San Diego Civic Center.
The city requested the report to build off earlier studies the coalition completed in January, pulling inspiration from community input and the mayor’s Civic Center Revitalization Committee. The report – titled “Quantifying Transformative Economic Impact: Implementation Roadmap” – charts near-term actions, decision-making processes and capital projects over the next five years to meaningfully advance the Civic Center revitalization initiative.
Using a two-phase approach, the report outlines a series of recommendations to guide development. The coalition proposed the first phase to prioritize redeveloping the Golden Hall to transform it into an education and cultural hub anchored by the San Diego Community College District.
The plan accounts for the eventual relocation of City Hall from the City Administration Building. The space would then be repurposed and expanded with a new hotel. Additional support spaces would include new housing and upgrading and extending the Civic Plaza into an improved, larger public space.
The second phase will transform various blocks into mixed-use development, providing housing and active ground floor opportunities. The city should also improve various infrastructure components for relevant buildings in the project site.
Plans also include redeveloping or utilizing adaptive reuse for the Civic Center Plaza structure, the King Chavez High School and the Evan Jones Parkade. The report notes that adaptive reuse and redevelopment for these projects would occur outside of the established two-phase timeline.
The coalition projected that Phase 1 initiatives should be completed within five years. In order to maximize efficiency and streamline processes, the report included a proposal to create a dedicated implementation organization composed of civic-minded shareholders to advance development measures. A Joint Powers Authority (JPA) composed of participating governmental entities and led by a non-profit manager should serve as the main vehicle for implementation.
Next steps for the redevelopment should be to create the JPA and begin work on creating a master development plan to solidify the project’s holistic vision.
Photo by Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, from Wikimedia Commons
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