(Mission Times Courier, San Diego, CA) - After three intense days of planning and public input, there is a now a clearer vision as to how the community of Grantville may look twenty or thirty years from now. From January 29th to the 31st, representatives from the City of San Diego's Planning Department and the Grantville Stakeholders Committee along with members of the public participated in a public input meeting called the Grantville Charrette.

The Charrette was designed to give the public an opportunity to offer their direct input in how they think the City should use money from the municipal redevelopment fund to revitalize the Grantville community. At the end of the session, participants with help from City planners developed four draft visions for how redevelopment should proceed.

Click here to view a slide show from the Charrette.

"This is a tedious process and we know that not everyone is going to agree on everything," remarked San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, "What you have the opportunity to do is create a community plan that works for all of you."

Sanders addressed the Charrette on its first day along with District 7 City Councilmember Marti Emerald and briefly observed some of the small groups established for public input.

"This is a great opportunity to decide what this master plan area will look like," Emerald commented, "This is the future of this part of the City, every idea is going to make this a better area for the future."

As a candidate for the City Council, Emerald had reservations about the redevelopment process; however, since taking office, she has been more open to the idea.

"I was concerned before about this designation of blight," Emerald told us, "But the truth is that this community plan hasn't been updated in a generation."

Some believe that the usage of the term blight portrays the situation in Grantville too negatively and will cause the City to spend too much on unnecessary projects. However, the overall industrial and unattractive appearance to the Grantville community was a major concern during the Charrette.

The neighborhood has a very central, accessible location in the heart of San Diego, with a relatively new trolley station and easy access to Interstate 8, yet an outdated community master plan that has failed to spur significant economic growth in Grantville inspired the San Diego City Council to establish it as a redevelopment area on May 3rd, 2005.

Now, however, it seems as if ambitions ideas to turn Grantville's warehouses and eclectic office buildings into condominiums and business parks seem to have more traction. Over the three day Charrette, members from the public, including property owners, residents and private citizens gave their input about Grantville development in three main categories, Land Use, Parks and Traffic.

All participants spoke directly with City Staff about these issues in breakout discussion groups and after discussing the importance of each of the issues, City Planners put the ideas into four draft master plans as to how to redevelop the area.

"I'm really happy about what you guys did, it seems like you listened to us," Brian Caster, a Grantville property owner and member of the Grantville Stakeholders Committee, said in regard to the representatives from the City's Planning Department after the draft master plans were unveiled.

Each of the four plans had variations from one another, but each focused on two main areas of redevelopment in Grantville.

The first area of focus would be around the Grantville Trolley Station, the area from Mission Gorge Place, all the way to Interstate 8. Brian Caster and his company, Caster Family Enterprises, already owns a significant portion of property in this area and is interested in developing it further.

The Charrette participants concluded a general interest to establish Transit Oriented Development here that would combine residential development and office buildings. Interest was also expressed in constructing mid-rise buildings here in an effort to block out traffic noise produced by Interstate 8.

The other area of focus would around Mission Gorge Road from Twain Avenue all the way to the San Diego River. This area would become the new "downtown" of Grantville, placing emphasis on constructing new residential and business properties here.

Streets running perpendicular to Mission Gorge such as Twain Avenue and Vandever Avenue would be turned into so called "green streets" with foliage either lining the street on the sides or down a median. Additionally there would be a major revitalization effort along the San Diego River that would include clearing up brush and along the river and Alvarado Creek.

The hope is to revive stagnant parts of the river and open them up to public access to the river which is currently not possible due to dense foliage on river sides. Possible ideas to develop the river area would include trails along the river to incorporate riverfront recreation and residences.

"This community has been beaten down, lied to and put off for so many years," commented Dan Smith, a member of the Grantville Stakeholders Committee and a property owner in the community, "There's never quite been the horsepower to go into this. Now that we're a development area, we've got the money. The obstacle is getting the residents of the Navajo community to accept this."

Not all members of the community are on board completely with the draft proposals. Throughout the course of the Charrette some citizens raised concerns about the availability of parking, keeping the size of buildings down to create a more open air feeling in the community and mitigating traffic.

City planners said that parking spaces would have to adhere to the City's currently established standards for parking spaces and availability. Some traffic issues have yet to be worked out but some ideas that came out of the Charrette include connecting Mission Gorge Road more fluidly with Mission Gorge Place and having Fairmount Avenue end at the community's Home Depot.

One of the largest concerns many have voiced is how the City intends to use eminent domain to create the space for all of the new development that could take place in Grantville.

"Eminent Domain is not as scary as some people think it is," Smith said.

Smith along with other property owners in Grantville stated the City would not have to use eminent domain to create new developments as owners already have new developments envisioned. Many of these property owners were present at the Charrette and are willing to work with the City in redevelopment, potentially averting many battles over the public seizure of property.

However, others disagree, arguing that because of the City's rush to redevelop the area, will mean that it will take more drastic measures to seize property for redevelopment. One of Councilmember Emerald's campaign promises is that she would not allow any abusive use of eminent domain.

The four Grantville Redevelopment Master Plan proposals put forth at the Charrette will soon be brought back to the Grantville Stakeholders Committee and other community groups for review. The proposals will need to go through many Environmental Impact Reports and reviews by the City, including approval by the San Diego City Council.

Dan Monroe, Grantville Project Manager for the City of San Diego, stated that it would be at least a year before any redevelopment plan is adopted for Grantville. Until then the community will be able to offer its input at all the community planning groups that will be hearing the proposals and refining and amending them.

Furthermore, it is likely to be another 5-20 years after a redevelopment scheme is adopted until that redevelopment plan is fully instituted in Grantville.

To download a PDF of the 4 alternatives, please click this link. Or view the images below: