San Diego Downtown Community Plan wins APA Award!
The San Diego Downtown Community Plan is the recipient of the 2007 Award of Merit for Comprehensive Planning for Large Jurisdictions from the California Chapter of the American Planning Association. With this award, Dyett & Bhatia has won California Chapter-level American Planning Association Awards in two out of the last three years. The award will be presented to Dyett & Bhatia and Centre City Development Corporation (Downtown’s redevelopment agency) at the APA California Chapter convention in October.
The Plan had earlier won the comprehensive planning award from the San Diego Section of the APA, as well as the Smart Growth Award from the Urban Land Institute San Diego/Tijuana chapter.
Envisioned as a tapestry of livable neighborhoods, downtown under the new Community Plan will support 90,000 residents and 170,000 employees—one of most intense places in the United States. All residents will live within a five-minute walk of a neighborhood center, with easy access to shopping, work, transit, several new parks, and a transformed waterfront. Sunlight will reach streets and parks under the innovative urban design framework, informed by computer modeling of the entire 1,500-acre downtown, done in-house by Dyett & Bhatia. With new zoning regulations adopted concurrently, implementation is underway.
A City Councilor called the process “… one of the most inclusive in San Diego in quite some time.” Dyett & Bhatia led all aspects of the project, and is honored to have served the Centre City Development Corporation and the community in advancing the regional goal of curtailing sprawl. To learn more about the Plan, go to www.ccdc.com/planupdate.