San Diego’s New Waterfront Park

After decades with talks of building a waterfront park on San Diego’s North Embarcadero Bayfront, the city just took the first necessarty steps to make the park a reality.  Located in the Little Italy and Columbia District Neighborhoods of Downtown San Diego, the proposed waterfront park will be at the site of the county Administration building bounded by Ash, Grape, Harbor and Pacific Highway.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved $2.6 million to demo the  J. W. Askew Building located on the north side of the County Administration Center.  They also approved $1.2 million to complete landscape designs for the 12-acre park.

If all goes as planned, the park will be completed in late 2013 and the residents of Downtown San Diego and our larger tourist population will enjoy one of the finest parks in the country.  The new park will include a series of outdoor landscapes that will create spaces with natural flora and artwork that will set up well  for events such as weddings, sports events, picnics and will create a wonderful setting for all to enjoy San Diego’s pristine waterfront. 

The new park is expected to cost around $38m and will be financed with redevelopment funds from CCDC.  One of the unique features of the park is two water features that will extend approximately 600 feet long by 25 feet wide and will be 2-3 inches deep.  The idea is that this water feature will create a downtown beach area for lounging and basking in the warm sun.

Residents at Bayside Condos and Breeza condos will really benefit from this amazing public improvement.  The idea of a place to hang out and relax on the bayfront will be a great addition to the dowtown neighborhoods.  

Do you think this is a good use of redevelopment funds?