Vision Statement

Rio Vista West is San Diego's first "transit-oriented development" (TOD). TOD reverses the traditional planning practice of building houses first, then figuring out where the roads will go. With TOD, streets come first, then houses. In Rio Vista West, this means the homes are closer together, streets are narrower, stores are closer, and everything is centered around a village square; with a park, a trolley stop and a bus station.

"It's a throwback to the urban village," says Tom Rooney, a Mission Valley construction executive. "Rio Vista West is going to be a place where people wander through their neighborhood for something other than a parking place."

Maybe they'll be strolling to the trolley the raison d'etre of Rio Vista West. Along with the river, of course. Rio Vista West is a village, not an island. And when people need to leave here to go to the stadium or downtown, we expect the trolley to be very popular. To supplement the trolley, Rio Vista West has a transit center where buses from all over the county stop.

Rio Vista West is comprised of a retail component, 900 townhouses, 165,000 square feet of offices and a 2-acre park. All in the style of Irving Gill, San Diego's most honored architect.

Putting it all together is San Francisco architect Peter Calthorpe. "Rio Vista West will serve as an ideal demonstration project to show how planning concepts can be transformed into reality," he says. "Parents will be able to send their children to the corner for ice cream or a loaf of bread without fear of their having to cross major thoroughfares in order to get there."