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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the role of community planning groups and engaged citizens in planning for sustainability in a southern California ‘edge city’. Through a case study of San Diego’s University Community, a residential and commercial area encompassing the core of the region’s bio-tech industry, it illustrates the constructive role that citizens and NGO’s can play in sustainable planning. In particular, it highlights the efficacy and also the limitations of formal community planning groups, entities that have received little attention in the literature on sustainability. Using historical methodologies and participant observation, it reveals potential for cooperation as well as conflicts among city planners, planning groups, non-profit organizations and engaged citizens in giving practical application to ‘sustainability’ in local planning and development.
Acknowledgments
This essay is dedicated to Howard Gillette, who years ago encouraged a group of planning historians to join their neighbourhood planning boards.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Campbell, “Green Cities, Growing Cities, Just Cities?”; see also Conroy and Berke, “What Makes a Good Sustainability Plan?”
2 Berke and Conroy, “Are We Planning for Sustainable Development?” 23–4.
3 Homsy and Warner, “Cities and Sustainability,” 12–3; Portney, Taking Sustainability Seriously.
4 Hempel, “Conceptual and Analytical Challenges in Building Sustainable Communities,” 48; Ageyman and Angus, “The Role of Civic Environmentalism,” 346.
5 E.g. Wheeler, “Planning for Metropolitan Sustainability”; Levesque, Bell, and Calhoun, “Planning for Sustainability”; Hawkins and Wang, “Sustainable Development Governance”; Agyeman and Angus, “The Role of Civic Environmentalism;” Berke and Conroy, “Are We Planning for Sustainable Development”; Portney, “Civic Engagement and Sustainable Cities,” Lubell, Feiock, and Handy, “City Adoption of Environmentally Sustainable Policies.”
6 Campbell, “Green Cities, Growing Cities, Just Cities?”; Wheeler, “Planning for Sustainability”; Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, The Egan Review.
7 Garreau, Edge City; Biocom, “The Impact of Life Science”; Keyser-Marston, “Market Demand Analysis”; City of San Diego, General Plan, LU7–8, LU10.
8 City of San Diego, UC Plan Update, Existing Conditions; Nature Conservancy, “Places We Protect”; Fillius, “Rare and Endangered Plants, Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.”
9 City of San Diego, City Council, Resolution R 217255.
10 University Community Planning Group [UCPG], Minutes, 2004–2018. See Homsy and Warner, “Cities and Sustainability.”
11 Wheeler, “Regions, Megaregions, and Sustainability”; Chifos, “The Sustainable Communities Experiment”; Bulkele and Betsill, “Rethinking Sustainable Cities”; Feiock et al., “Governing Local Sustainability”; Seyfang and Smith, “Grassroots Innovations for Sustainable Development”; Hawkins and Wang, “Sustainable Development Governance”; Portney and Berry, “Civil Society and Sustainable Cities.”
12 Levesque, Bell, and Calhoun, “Planning for Sustainability”; Saha, “Empirical Research on Local Government Sustainability Efforts.”
13 Harwood, “Environmental Justice on the Streets”; Manning Thomas, “Neighborhood Planning”; Sandercock, Making the Invisible Visible; Peterman, Neighborhood Planning; Walker, The Country in the City; Thornton, “Searching for Consensus and Predictability”; Portney and Berry, “Civil Society and Sustainable Cities.”
14 Beierle and Cayford, Democracy in Practice; Agyeman and Angus, “The Role of Civic Environmentalism”; Portney, “Civic Engagement and Sustainable Cities”; Hawkins and Wang, “Sustainable Development Governance”; Malbert, “Participatory Approaches to Sustainable Urban Development”; Kinzer, “How Can We Help?”
15 Conroy and Berke, “What Makes a Good Sustainable Development Plan?”; Innes and Booher, Planning with Complexity.
16 Agyeman and Angus, “The Role of Civic Environmentalism,” 349; Conroy and Berke, “What Makes a Good Sustainable Development Plan?”; Burby, “Making Plans that Matter”; Portney and Berry, “Participation and the Pursuit of Sustainability,” 121–3; Portney, “Civic Engagement and Sustainable Cities.”
17 Agyeman and Angus, “The Role of Civic Environmentalism.”
18 Portney, “Civic Engagement and Sustainable Cities.”
19 Kinzer, “Missed Connections”; Kinzer, “How Can We Help?”
20 Portney, “Civic Engagement and Sustainable Cities”; see also Portney and Berry, “Civil Society and Sustainable Cities”; Portney and Cuttler, “The Local Non-Profit Sector.”
21 Blake, “Overcoming the ‘Value-action Gap’ in Environmental Policy,” 272; Agyeman and Angus, “The Role of Civic Environmentalism.”
22 Van Stigt, Driessen, and Spit, “A Window on Urban Sustainability.”
23 Healey, Collaborative Planning; Innes and Booher, Planning with Complexity.
24 E.g. Beierle and Cayford, Democracy in Practice; Kinzer, “How Can We Help?”; Burby, “Making Plans that Matter”; O’Connell, “The Impact of Local Supporters on Smart Growth Policy Adoption.”
25 Barnett, “How Seattle is Dismantling a NIMBY Power Structure.”
26 Parent, Rosas, and Medina, “Democracy in Planning.”
27 Ibid.
28 Hanna, “Planning for Sustainability.”
29 Lubell, Feiock, and Handy, “City Adoption of Environmentally Sustainable Policies”; Conroy and Berke, “What Makes a Good Sustainability Plan?”
30 Statistical Atlas, San Diego, California.
31 “University City: America’s Greatest Planned Community”; San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, “San Diego’s Life Sciences Cluster.” City of San Diego, UC Plan Update, Existing Conditions.
32 Borland, “Tech Firms are Taking Over.”
33 Nature Conservancy, “Places We Protect”; Louv, “Bringing Nature Home.”
34 City of San Diego, Multiple Species Conservation Program; San Diego Archeology Center, Rose Canyon; City of San Diego, Draft-EIR, University Community Plan.
35 City of San Diego, Vernal Pool Habitat Conservation Plan, pps. 2-9-10, 6–11.
36 “Council Selects Planning Group”; “San Diego Wins 2nd All America.”
37 UCPG, Bylaws.
38 Wiese, “Friends of Rose Canyon.”
39 City of San Diego, “Sustainability”; City of San Diego, General Plan.
40 City of San Diego, Climate Action Plan.
41 E.g. Portney, Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously; National Geographic Channel, “World’s Smart Cities: San Diego.”
42 Owens, Cowell, and Westley, Land and Limits.
43 Wall, “Opening Remarks”; Miller et.al. find that a lack of attention to biodiversity was common among US planning departments. Miller, et.al., “Biodiversity Conservation in Local Planning.”
44 San Diego Zoo Global, “San Diego County.”
45 Wiese, “Friends of Rose Canyon.”
46 City of San Diego, Environmental Impact Report, 3–14, 3–15, 4.7.3–4.
47 Lee, “Making a Case for Open Space.”
48 Hargrave, “Mind the Gap.”
49 City of San Diego, Planning Commission, “University Community Planning Area”; Deegan, “Strife Span,” 10.
50 Lau, “Bridge Battle.”
51 Wiese, “Friends of Rose Canyon.”
52 Ibid.
53 Friends of Rose Canyon, “Save Rose Canyon Park.”
54 Lau, “Bridge Battle.”
55 Wiese, “Friends of Rose Canyon.”
56 San Diego City Council, Minutes, 1 August 2006, at 4:59.
57 Innes and Booher, Planning with Complexity, 6.
58 UCPG, Minutes, 11 July 2006.
59 Ibid.; Steele, “City’s Decision Due.”
60 E.g. Wheeler, “Planning for Sustainability”; Portney, “Civic Engagement and Sustainable Cities”; Hempel, “Conceptual and Analytical Challenges in Building Sustainable Communities.”
61 For example, UCPG, Minutes, June 2011; November 2011; April 2012.
62 UCPG, Minutes, 2004–2018. San Diego Planning Commission, Minutes, 2004–2018. E.g. November 2011; January 2012; July 2012; Homsy and Warner, “Cities and Sustainability”; Berke and Conroy, “Are We Planning for Sustainable Development?”
63 UCPG, Minutes, 11 July 2006.
64 Lee, “Making a Case for Open Space.”
65 UCPG, Minutes, 11 July 2006; San Diego City Council, Minutes, 1 August 2006.
66 City of San Diego, City Attorney, Memorandum MS 59.
67 Deegan, “Strife Span”; Steele, “City’s Decision Due”; City Attorney, Memorandum MS 59. See, Knight and Pratt, “Legal, Ethical and Conflict of Interest Issues”; Friends of Rose Canyon, et. al. v. City of San Diego, Petition for Writ of Mandate.
68 Ristine, “$42 Billion Region Plan”; Hawkins, “SANDAG Could Decide Today.” Rose, Bernstein, and Cohen, “San Diego and SB375.”
69 Wiese, “Friends of Rose Canyon”; City of San Diego, University Community Plan, 127–8.
70 “Re-Elect Sherri Lightner”; Wood, “Community Oversees Planning Group.”
71 Wiese, “Friends of Rose Canyon.”
72 On open space and sustainability, see Chornesky et al., “Adapting California’s Ecosystems”; Underwood et al., Valuing Chaparral; Sustainability Outlook, “Open Spaces for Urban Sustainability.”
73 San Diego Civic Solutions, Canyonlands; Weisberg, “Civic Watchdogs.”
74 San Diego Canyonlands, “Advocacy,” “Park Dedication”; Civic Solutions, Canyonlands, 3; Healey, Collaborative Planning in Perspective; Conroy and Berke, “What Makes a Good Sustainability Plan?”
75 Bowlby, “Interview.”
76 SDCL, “San Diegans Show Overwhelming Support for Parklands”; Lee, “Canyon Park Plan.”
77 San Diego Canyonlands, “Planning Group Actions,” e.g. Tierrasanta Town Council, Minutes, 19 October 2011; North Park Planning Committee, Minutes, 19 June 2012.
78 UCPG, Minutes, 11 October 2011; 8 November 2011; 9 October 2012.
79 UCPG, Minutes, 9 October 2012; “Motion in Support of Open Space Dedication.”
80 San Diego Canyonlands, “Planning Group Actions,” University Community; UCPG Minutes, 9 October 2012.
81 Friends of Rose Canyon, “Supporting Information for Dedication”; City of San Diego, Sub-Committee on Land Use and Housing, Minutes, 17 October 2012; “Preservation Sought for Sensitive San Diego Land.”
82 City of San Diego, Council Resolution R307902.
83 Civic Solutions, Canyonlands; see for example, UCPG, Annual Report.
84 City of San Diego, General Plan, SF-3–6, GP-8.
85 E.g. UCPG, Minutes, Special Meeting, 25 June 2012 (Power Plant); UCPG, Minutes, 13 April 2010 (Mid-coast Trolley); UCPG, Minutes, 12 November 2013 (Coastal Rail Trail); UCPG, Minutes, 10 March 2015 (Double Tracking). Motion and Author’s notes, UCPG, Minutes, 9 January 2018, and Motion and Author’s Notes, UCPG, Minutes, 8 March 2016 (City Real Estate Sales).
86 Federal Register, “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife”; Author’s Notes, 11 June 2013; UCPG, Agenda, 11 June 2013.
87 UCPG, Minutes, 14 October 2014; City of San Diego, “Mayor Faulconer, Councilmember Lightner to Announce Plan.”
88 UCPG, Minutes, 18 November 2014. 14 July 2015; Ogg, “MHPA Boundary Line Adjustment.”
89 E.g. UCPG, Minutes, 12 July 2011, 11 November 2011, and 10 January 2012 (Irvine Co); 11 September 2012 and 9 October 2012 (BioMed Realty, and Garden Communities); 13 November 2012 (Scripps Memorial Hospital); 12 February 2013 (Alexandria) 10 March 2015 (Costa Verde initiation); 13 June 2017 (Alexandria).
90 “Growing Smarter,”
91 UCPG, Minutes, 12 May 2015, 12 January 2016, 9 February 2016; 11 April 2017; City of San Diego, Planning Commission, PC 17-012.
92 Shutkin (2000), quoted in Conroy and Berke, “What Makes a Good Sustainable Development Plan?” 1385.
93 Parent, Rosas, and Medina, “Democracy in Planning.”
94 Portney and Cuttler, “The Local Non-profit Sector,” 327.
95 Bowen, “Pro-density Urbanists Sweep Uptown Planners Election.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Andrew Wiese
Andrew Wiese is Professor of History at San Diego State University and a member of the board of the University Community Planning Group, 2012–2020.