In the News 2006
Reply to NIMBY: Plan Intelligently for Inevitable Growth.
July 17, 2006
Plenty of Infill Lots Creates Opportunities For Mixed-Use Projects.
While smart growth is designed to promote sound development, the public isn't always welcoming, said the principal of a local architectural firm.
"There still is a lot of resistance of many in the public to smart growth," said San Diego-based MW Steele's Mark Steele.
"I think a lot of people are led to believe that it's a measure to create growth. This is not true. But, when growth occurs, how do we do this in a graceful way that improves the city?"
NIMBYism - a Not in My Back Yard viewpoint - happens when residents impacted by greater densities see only the downside, such as more traffic, said Nathan L. Moeder, principal of London Group Realty Advisors Inc. in San Diego. But it often comes down to money.
"We have to start contributing money to these areas, so neighborhoods see that by allowing density in their back yard, they are benefiting as well," Moeder said. "We need to reallocate money to invest in sewers and cracked sidewalks. We need to put tax dollars and permits and fee dollars back into the community. That is what has been missing with smart growth."
Stephen Haase, vice president of Sudberry Properties Inc. in San Diego, has a few thoughts of his own on the subject.
"My theory is that we are all NIMBYs," he said. "We do care about what happens around us. The fact is, some people take it to the extreme, and are opposed to any growth at all."
Quality Of Growth
Sudberry Properties has been a longtime advocate and practitioner of smart growth, incorporating the live/work/play philosophy at Eastlake Village Marketplace in Chula Vista and Quarry Falls, a new community planned in Mission Valley. Adjacent to the Quarry Falls site is its Rio Vista West development, featured in the book "The New Urbanism," by Peter Katz. In 1992, Sudberry helped create the master plan for this mixed-use project, an early example of smart growth. It includes Sudberry's retail center, a promenade, housing and open space, located near a trolley station.
"There is a certain inevitability to growth," he said. "It's the quality of growth that should be the discussion, not the issue of growth."
Back when San Diego was in its early growth stage, NIMBYism wasn't a factor, Haase said.
"Now, most of the vacant land is gone, and more development will be infill and will be in people's back yard," he said. "It will have to be high quality and smart growth."
This means making sure that a neighborhood has what it needs.
"Smart growth is that you don't have to go different places to live life," he said. "Social capital is the term used now. Neighborhoods are nothing without people. The strongest social capital has a diverse community, rich and poor, different ethnicities, genders and religious beliefs. That's the beauty of our society."
But, sometimes the ugliness, too.
"Sometimes NIMBYism is a mask for other people's fears," Haase said. "We still have a lot of prejudices in our society. It's getting better, but it's not gone. Change can be threatening for those who live in those communities. Some take it well and flourish, others don't."
The Fear Factor
Douglas Wilson, the chairman and chief executive officer of the Douglas Wilson Cos., is a veteran builder in San Diego who has been a prime mover in downtown San Diego's rebirth, from Symphony Towers on B Street in 1989, to the Parklofts and the Mark in the revitalized East Village today.
Among Wilson's current projects, he is the lead partner in CentrePoint LLC, which is creating a $110 million pedestrian-oriented mixed-use project on 8.93 acres along the 6300 block of El Cajon Boulevard at 63rd Street. The project includes market-rate and affordable housing units, live/work units, 4,000 square feet of retail space, off-street parking and open space and recreational facilities.
"I think there is a natural human nature, this fear of growth, and not understanding growth," he said. "But, the reality is that California is going to continue to grow, as the population of the world is growing."
The answer, said Wilson, is smart growth, and increasing density in urban areas. "It's a much preferable alternative to taking more and more rural land, and disrupting them and having to build brand-new infrastructure, and requiring longer commutes," he said.
But the smart growth concept is still evolving, Wilson said.
"We are in the early innings of a much longer ballgame," he said.
Wilson also recently bought the 19-acre Mission Valley Resort and surrounding property, which includes a 202-room hotel, a family-style restaurant, a Chevron gas station and a small retail building. While plans for the site aren't final, one possibility is to transform the aging hotel into a mixed-use project with condos.
"We have an excellent reputation in getting a complex project entitled," Wilson said.
But, smart builders understand that smart growth requires good working relationships with all the parties involved, for better or worse, he said.
"I think you have to understand the reality of our system," Wilson said. "Instead of saying you don't like planning groups, you have to figure out how you work with them. Much of the negativity can be overcome, if you take an adequate amount of time to present projects and point out issues and the solutions that might be there."
By PAT BRODERICK
San Diego Business Journal