Community & Economic Development
Efforts to Revitalize City Heights Receive Statewide Recognition
City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency Honored with Award of Excellence for City Heights Urban Village
SAN DIEGO – The City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency announced today that it has been awarded a 2003 Award of Excellence from the California Redevelopment Association (CRA) for its City Heights Urban Village Redevelopment Project. Winning in the category of Community Revitalization, the City’s Redevelopment Agency earned statewide public and professional recognition for the City Heights Urban Village. Awards will be distributed at the 2003 CRA Annual Conference and Expo in March.
The City Heights Urban Village is considered one of the nation’s crowning achievements in community revitalization, as major cities around the country focus on redeveloping areas in need of assistance. The project has turned a once-decaying part of San Diego into a thriving community with reduced crime, improved infrastructure, new business opportunities and a renewed sense of civic pride.
The City Heights Urban Village is among several other public/private projects either completed, under way or planned in this dynamic Mid-City neighborhood. More than $740 million of redevelopment, infrastructure and school projects have been completed or are planned in the very near future in City Heights. This investment represents public/private projects between agencies such as the City of San Diego, San Diego Unified School District, state of California and private and non-profit developers.
The success of City Heights Urban Village, located in one of 15 redevelopment project areas in San Diego, was due to an unprecedented local partnership among government, private enterprise and non-profit organizations. The Redevelopment Agency (through the Community and Economic Development Department) worked closely with such diverse groups as CityLink Investment Corporation, Price Charities, San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Housing Commission, San Diego Community Foundation, Neighborhood House, San Diego Padres, numerous community organizations and others to bring investment and affordable living and work spaces to the City Heights area.
“The City Heights Urban Village is a prime example of the creative steps public/private partnerships can take to return neglected neighborhoods to places of pride and beauty,” said John Shirey, executive director of the California Redevelopment Association. “The redevelopment efforts made by the City of San Diego and its partners serve as a model for cities around the country, and the CRA is proud to bestow its Award of Excellence on such a worthy project.”
In the seven years since the project’s inception, a new police substation, community gymnasium library, elementary school, community service center, recreation center, continuing education facility, retail center and a mixed-use component of 116 townhomes and office center have been added to the area. Additionally in the City Heights project area, a “Home in Heights” first-time homebuyer incentive program has been implemented and a new City Heights Metro Center featuring a regional job training and placement center, office space and an affordable housing element broke ground this month.
“The work done in the City Heights area of San Diego amounts to nothing short of an urban renaissance,” said Hank Cunningham, assistant executive director for the Redevelopment Agency. “The united efforts of all parties involved to revitalize this area of our city have been remarkable and we are honored to be chosen by the California Redevelopment Association to receive this prestigious award.”
The California Redevelopment Association, founded in 1979 to work with the state legislature to maintain and enhance viable urban policy, received dozens of submissions from cities around the state to be considered for Awards of Excellence. The City Heights Urban Village submission scored high marks in such categories as Blight Elimination, Community Betterment, Community Participation, Design, and Economic Viability. The CRA also recognizes redevelopment accomplishments in such categories as Mixed Use Development, Residential Development and Public Spaces & Linkages among others. Awards have been presented to deserving cities every year since 1997.
For more information on redevelopment activities in City Heights and other neighborhoods in San Diego, contact the City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency at (619) 533-4233 or visit the City’s web site at www.sandiego.gov.
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The City of San Diego Redevelopment Agencyeliminates blight from designated areas, as well as achieves the goals of development, reconstruction and rehabilitation of residential, commercial, industrial, and retail districts. Redevelopment is one of the most effective ways to breathe new life into deteriorated areas plagued by social, physical, environmental or economic conditions that act as a barrier to new investment by private enterprise. The City of San Diego Redevelopment Agencyconsists of three divisions:the City Redevelopment Division (housed in the City of San Diego Communityand Economic Development Department), the Centre City Development Corporation and the Southeastern Economic Development Corporation.
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