Quarry Falls Reaches Key Planning Milestone

The planning process for Quarry Falls has reached a major milestone, with the City of San Diego's release of the draft Environmental Impact Report for Quarry Falls.

This is a document created under state law that outlines the planning for Quarry Falls and provides an unbiased analysis of all of its impacts and most importantly identifies protective measures that are feasible to reduce the environmental impacts to a less than significant level.

The environmental protection measures included in our concept for Quarry Falls include multi-modal transportation solutions and sustainable features like walkable streets, bike lanes, solar orientation and energy management systems, drought tolerant and native landscaping, high efficiency irrigation systems designed for reclaimed water, natural filtration of storm water, construction waste recycling, and sustainable and recyclable building materials.

By recycling the quarry, we can also help reduce commuter traffic by providing homes close to jobs in Mission Valley. In addition, we will expedite and provide significant funding for planned improvements to key interchanges, and fund urgently needed traffic improvements to surrounding intersections.

Recently, the U.S. Green Building Council accepted Quarry Falls as a pilot project in its new “LEED for Neighborhood Development” program. The program serves as a guide for creating compact, walkable, well-connected communities with a holistic approach to sustainability.

We invite you to take a look at the draft EIR, but we should warn you, it’s a large file and could take several minutes to download.

If you have any questions about the report, please feel free to email me or give me a call at (619) 374-2333.

Bridge Brings Community Together

After months of working with the Friends of Ruffin Canyon and Kearny
High's Construction Tech Academy, this past week we put the finishing
touches on a bridge over the Ruffin Canyon ravine next to Taft Middle
School. From the students at Kearny High School who built the bridge to
Jim the crane operator to the Canyon's Park Ranger - the project was a
real community effort and we couldn't have been more excited to have
been part of it.

What a response!

Wow. A few weeks ago, I sent an email to a group of friends about the Quarry Falls Visioning process and link to a video. Since then, we've been overwhelmed with positive emails from all kinds of folks. Take a look at the responses below - they’re great - and show just how far the project has come.

Thanks for your help and look for more video emails in the coming days. As always, if you have suggestions or questions, add your comments to this blog and I'll respond here.

Talk soon,
Tom

"Thanks you for the opportunity to participate in this important process for the quarry falls project.

"Tom. My enthusiasm grows the more I learn about this development."

"Tom, thanks for the (email) announcement. Your continuing dialogue with the community is much appreciated, and is one factor that sets your firm apart from other developers."

To go green, Live closer to work!

Today the LA Times had a special report on mixed-use living close to public transportation, but if you’re reading this blog - and have been part of the Quarry Falls discussion - this isn’t news to you.

According to the report, “Forty percent of the planet-heating gases that Californians emit come from transportation … and with its booming population and sprawling suburbs, the state's greenhouse emissions will continue to soar unless it dramatically changes the way it builds cities and suburbs.

The report, "Growing Cooler: Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change," concluded that compact development -- mixing housing and businesses in denser patterns, with walkable neighborhoods -- could do as much to lower emissions as many of the climate policies now promoted by state and national politicians.” Sound familiar?

The article goes on: "We can no longer afford to ignore land use," said Steve Winkelman, director of the Transportation Program at the Center for Clean Air Policy, and one of the report's authors. "Urban development is both a key contributor to climate change and an essential factor in combating it."

Click here to read the complete article.

Placemaking at Quarry Falls: PPS Report

Over the past 32 years, Project for Public Spaces (PPS) has evaluated more than 2,000 public spaces, and informally investigated thousands more.

Recently, PPS conducted a Visioning Workshop for the Quarry Falls project to develop a vision for the public spaces at Quarry Falls that reflects how people will want to use this space and today we have the results.

Placemaking at Quarry Falls is a 94-page report that reflects the ideas and recommendations that emerged at the Visioning Workshop and is intended to set the stage for the next step: the design of the site plan for Quarry Falls Civic Area and Public Park.

Although the workshop focused on the park and civic center, participants also considered the broader community that is being planned around the park - the streets, sidewalks, parks, buildings and other public spaces - and how together they could become the setting for interaction between people in the future community.

Click here to read the full report. After you’ve read the report, feel free to add a comment on the blog.

Community Visioning Workshop Video

Recently Sudberry Properties and the world-renowned Project for Public Spaces hosted a Community Visioning Workshop to help design the civic space and public park in Quarry Falls. More than one hundred neighbors and community leaders attended the day-long seminar. Check out the results in this brief video.

Mission Valley’s First Public School Approved for Quarry Falls

The San Diego Unified School District has voted to allow the creation of Mission Valley’s first public school, a K-8 charter school in Quarry Falls to be operated by the renowned ”High Tech High.” Watch the TV news coverage here.

We are so excited that this component of Quarry Falls is one critical step closer to reality. The school is planned for the first phase of construction.

Area Without School May Get One

You can read more about our plan to bring a new K-8 charter school to Mission Valley in the recent San Diego Union-Tribune here.

High Tech High operates six public charter schools in the former Naval Training Center and has two more in the works in the county. High Tech High schools are known for engaging students through hands-on projects, integrating technology into the curriculum and offering an intimate learning environment.

Lack of Land, Traffic Congestion Forcing More Mixed-Use, Infill Projects

It is clear that San Diegans find it more and more difficult to live close to where they work. A recent article in the San Diego Business Journal shows that the severe lack of land, increased traffic congestion, and demand for shorter commutes has made it more and more difficult to create larger, master-planned communities in suburban areas of the county. This forces future development to shift from master-planned communities to smaller infill mixed-use projects where people can live close to where they work. Quarry Falls is exactly the type of mixed-use project that helps solve this problem by creating a livable, sustainable community where people can live, play, and work without having to commute.