Cover design by SCOTT ROBINSON
Photos by HEATHER DEPPE
Illustrations by CITY DESIGN
In the late 1980s, enrollment at San Diego State University swelled to more than 30,000 students. Because of inadequate housing on or near campus, many students turned to surrounding communities to find places to live.
Increasing numbers of commuting students led to traffic and parking problems. Area residents urged the university to address the needs of its students and to provide them housing closer to school, not in houses meant for families.
As enrollment continued to increase, it became critical to address the needs of the current students and the students of the future.
The University Board of Trustees developed a task force to review the issues surrounding both the students and the college community. It recommended that the SDSU Foundation pursue public/private partnerships to help alleviate the problems.
After the Foundation conducted a housing-demand study, it discovered the college community also had demands for retail and commercial services to support the residential community.
With that, the College Community Redevelopment Plan was created.
From the original concept of providing housing grew the concept of mixed-use redevelopment, from which a “campus village” eventually would spring.
Ten years in the making, this plan has drawn in committees made up of area residents, businesses, city officials and students. It has sparked ideas and interest, and it has experienced its share of setbacks.
Three years behind schedule, the approximately $500 million project is expected to take 15 to 20 years to complete, but construction may begin by early next semester.
Pride and prominence
“(The redevelopment) will make SDSU a more prominent part of this community,” said Associated Students Executive Vice President Tim Roberts, who is also a resident member of the Project Area Committee, an advisory body to San Diego’s Redevelopment Agency. “It has a lot to do with pride, not just of the students, but it will make the community more proud and aware of SDSU.”
The redevelopment area consists of 133 acres and comprises five project sub-areas, which will be developed in different phases. These sub-areas include the core, 55th Street, Alvarado Road, Lot A and Montezuma School.
The core is the area bounded by Montezuma Road, College Avenue and 55th Street and currently includes mostly residential and commercial land uses.
In an effort to create a “campus village” that will revitalize the community, the redevelopment project will bring to the area more student housing, retail and restaurants, and recreational amenities.
“One of the goals of this project is to make the campus have more of a community feel,” said Stephanie Boyd, director of community and public relations at the SDSU Foundation. “Now a lot of people come to campus, go to class and go home. They don’t think of it as a place to hang out.
“(This project) gives them more of an opportunity to connect with the campus. I hope it creates a place of excitement (and) a place of pride.”
Goals and opportunities
“Our over-arching goal is to create resources that address the needs of the community and campus in the areas of housing, culture, entertainment and business,” Boyd said of the project, which will be financed mostly through tax-exempt bonds.
The commercial areas will provide jobs for students and members of the community as well as opportunities for shopping and entertainment.
Some possibilities include a hotel/conference center, a movie theater, a planetarium, coffeehouses and a microbrewery. Other ideas are a music store, a Borders-type bookstore, an Internet cafe and a sports bar and grill that focuses on SDSU athletes.
“It will be a more interactive shopping experience where people can enjoy the environment,” Boyd said.
Another goal of the plan is to create more prominent campus gateways so that people will have a sense of arrival when entering the College Area and the campus.
Instead of vacant fields and abandoned gas stations, future students might see parks, public art displays or other landmarks that will mark an entrance to a bustling SDSU community.
Guidelines and approval
Currently, committee members and the SDSU Foundation are reviewing design plans for the project by the firm Wallace, Roberts and Todd.
After feedback from the Foundation and advisory committees on several design concepts, consultants from the firm have established a plan organized around an “urban structure of pedestrian-friendly streets and functioning alleys.”
The Foundation plans to adopt an overall design guideline early this summer.
Once the design criteria are adopted and the Foundation has obtained a building permit, the community will have the opportunity to appeal the chosen design, Boyd said.
“The community has put in thousands of hours to get us where we are now. The students have been meeting about this as long as we have.” she said. “All of that input has been part of the development of this plan.
“The (committees’) viewpoints are critical to our success.”
Paul Thomas, president of the College Area Community Council, one of the advisory committees, said he was impressed with the design concepts and is glad the Foundation has been sensitive to the input of the surrounding community.
“All in all, I’m in favor of the redevelopment,” he said. “On some streets, there are some pretty terrible residential areas. Hopefully they’ll be replaced.
“What we’re hoping for is that the community and the university can develop some sort of symbiotic relationship that will be good for both the community and the university.”
Foundation approval of the redevelopment is the project’s next step, Boyd said. The first shovel cannot break ground until the board of directors gives the thumbs up.
Upon approval, the Foundation can begin hiring architects, construction companies and other necessary developers.
“We hope to break ground the beginning of the fall semester,” Boyd said. “Assuming the board approves the project and the financing, we’re going to see earth moving by the end of the year.”
The first developments
Boyd said student housing will be among the first developed land uses, which will take about two years to complete. Also during this phase phase one mixed-use commercial and fraternity housing will be built.
Phase one construction will take place in a subsection of the redevelopment area known as the core area.
“Within the next year or two,” Boyd said, “we’ll start to see development of future phases, such as sorority housing, religious centers and the expansion of the mixed-use area.”
Project director Fred Pierce said that as the project goes through its phases, a majority of the existing buildings will be torn down. Some larger buildings will remain because it is not economical to tear them down and redevelop them, he said.
Pierce said there should not be any displaced residents during phase one of the project, but if there are, there will be an increasing number of residential units available to them as the project moves on. Under redevelopment law, the Foundation has an obligation to relocate those who are displaced.
“Our main goal in the relocation is to, as best as we possibly can, make the transition on those being relocated as easy as possible,” he said. “We’ll have new facilities completed at the same time they move.
“That may not always be the case, but that’s our overall objective.”
Beautification
and revitalization
One area committee, separate from the redevelopment project, has made its goal the beautification of College Area gateways.
The Gateway Beautification Project covers the intersection at Fairmount Avenue and Montezuma Road and the medians surrounding the university on Montezuma and College
Avenue. The committee meets to make recommendations about the types of plantings and to identify sources of funding for the project.
According to co-chair of the committee Sally Roush, who is also the SDSU vice president of Business and Financial Affairs, funds have not yet been identified, but the project may get help from the university and Councilwoman Judy McCarty.
The redevelopment of this area does not include just the campus and its immediate surroundings; many College Area businesses are working together to revitalize an area known as the Business Improvement District.
The College Area BID, made up of nearly 450 businesses, extends from 54th to 73rd streets along El Cajon Boulevard. Another BID component includes the 20 to 30 businesses near the corner of College Avenue and Montezuma Road.
According to BID director Marco Li Mandri, the BID’s main goal is to improve the image of and create an identity for the College Business District.
“The model for the College Business District is Hillcrest,” said Li Mandri, who has worked to improve ailing business districts in other cities. “It’s a great mix of professionals, residential support and retail, and it’s great (to be there) day or night.
“(We want) the College Business District to be the cosmopolitan center of the whole East County.”
The BID’s upcoming plans include a palm planting project along El Cajon Boulevard, which will be in early May, and a street fair in Rolando on June 14.
Other plans include a college landmark sign modeled after the Hillcrest and Kensington signs to span El Cajon Boulevard at College Avenue and a mural painting program that will highlight the history of SDSU and landscaped medians along El Cajon Boulevard.
Although the revitalization of the BID and the redevelopment of the SDSU areas are separate, Li Mandri thinks the two can be complementary.
“If they try to bring a movie theater in, it would create an anchor away from El Cajon,” he said. “(An area) can’t have multiple anchors.
“The BID and the redevelopment can be complementary as long as the redevelopment does not reproduce what the BID is trying to do.”
Boyd said the Foundation would be willing to work with the BID on some sort of cooperative basis.
“There’s no reason for us to be in competition,” Boyd said. “If we create a focal point (within the redevelopment area), all of the businesses in the area should benefit from that concentration of people. I think the redevelopment and the BID should be complementary because they are both intended to revitalize the area, generate economic growth and provide better resources for the community.”
Boyd acknowledged the potential for conflict.
“Competition is the American way. However, I don’t think any of us needs to worry about what the limits of the market will be. We’ll be reasonable in the way we proceed,” she said.
“We’re interested in working with them so that all of our interests are addressed.”
A new level of transportation
In the early 21st century, the underground trolley station will be another addition to the College Area.
According to Project Director Toni Bates of the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, the SDSU station is projected to be San Diego’s biggest ridership station with 4,500 riders per day.
Construction of the 3,900-foot, underground tunnel and station, which will be located 60 feet beneath the existing bus terminal on Campanile Drive, is slated to begin in late 1999 or early 2000.
“Because the station at SDSU is at the heart of the redevelopment area,” Bates said, “there is an opportunity to integrate the station design into the redevelopment project.”
According to Boyd, the transit center is central to the redevelopment project. At design criteria meetings, she said, committee members and design consultants discussed several ideas relating to the design of the station.
One idea, which may not be economically feasible, included locating the bus terminals and various parking areas underground above the trolley station so that the Campanile gateway to SDSU will offer an unobstructed view to Hepner Hall.
A place to call home
With new housing, retail outlets and areas of entertainment, SDSU will evolve from a commuter school to a self-sufficient community.
“If everything works out the way it’s supposed to,” Roberts said, “(the redevelopment) will take SDSU beyond anything anyone’s ever experienced here.”
And although the project may not be completed during our respective years at SDSU, it does provide a reason to come back for a visit.
“This is an opportunity for alumni to have a home to come back to at Homecoming,” Boyd said.
