Pernicano’s and the Uptown Gateway District, San Diego
"The Uptown Gateway District is a community plan depicting a renewed and vibrant center for San Diego’s Hillcrest community. A 2015 update to the Uptown Community Plan proposed significant down zoning to all of Hillcrest, including its commercial core. The moratorium on future development discourages rejuvenation and encourages a mass migration of businesses to more dynamic parts of San Diego. The Uptown Gateway District plan introduces height to enhance a decaying public realm and promote revitalization and economic growth. Density allowances call for smaller, more affordable housing units with flexible parking standards to encourage the use of public transportation and compliance with a newly passed Climate Action Plan." - Safie Rabines Architects, development team members of the Uptown Gateway Council.
The San Diego City Council voted 7-2 to approve Uptown’s Community Plan Update (CPU), an important policy document that will guide growth and development for the next 20 years. Within this CPU a specific plan will be later written into the CPU to address the need for increased density in Uptown Gateway District, an approximate 11 acres in the urban core of Hillcrest, between Washington Street to the north and Pennsylvania Avenue to the south, Fourth Avenue to the west and Seventh Avenue to the east.
“Today’s approval of the Uptown Community Plan Update is an important and necessary step not only to comply with our General Plan and Climate Action Plan but to also set the right course for the future of our city going forward,” Councilmember Todd Gloria said in a statement released after the vote. “With this update, we will be able to foster vibrant, walkable and transit-oriented communities in Uptown that reduces automobile dependency, protects the integrity of our historic resources, and embraces new urban growth,” he said.
“What the Uptown Gateway is striving to do is to learn the lessons of history; of what has gone well and what has gone wrong in urban spaces and create a vision for the future of Hillcrest where you can live, work, play, and be connected to public transportation.” - Pauly De Bartolo a development team member of the Uptown Gateway Council & founding principle of DBRDS. It was the RFP for the Pernicano’s property located centrally to the Uptown Gateway District, won by DBRDS’s proposal, which was the catalyst for the Uptown Gateway District effort. By illustrating the community & public benefits that could be included, this dynamic design proposal sparked belief that Hillcrest could be revitalized into an energetic, vibrant urban core for San Diego.
"The idea behind taking this area and putting density on it, you activate people so people can live, work, shop, eat and recreate, all in the same place using the built environment to minimize congestion, and we achieve that by creating a project that is within a 15 minute radius we’re connected to downtown, Little Italy, Mission Valley, and North Park. It’s a quick ride by bus, bike, or Uber to get there --
it’s going to be a whole different community along the lines of the best urban districts that we see throughout the nation such as Portland Pearl District." - Gary London, Senior Principal at London Moeder Advisors.
Collaborators included Safdie Rabines Architects & Urban Housing Partners, London Moeder Advisors and Breadtruck Films.
