Better Design for Park Improvements

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     At its monthly meeting in March 2022, the Balboa Park Committee offered encouragement to Committee of 100 volunteers Mike Stepner and René Smith after learning about their idea for a better process of reviewing proposed park improvements.   

 

(Click on the underlined text to see the Powerpoint presentation)

 

     As the city’s official advisory body for park management, the Balboa Park Committee may test the process as early as this summer by appointing a Design Review Subcommittee.

     The Subcommittee would consist of professional architects, designers, engineers and planners. It would apply design standards to new Balboa Park projects in a public process, whether a project is designed on the desk of a city staffer or on the dining-room table of a community volunteer. 

     Equally important, the Subcommittee would offer professional, park-focused expertise at the early stages of design development – reducing uncertainty over eventual city approval and eliminating the cost of late-stage design changes that might otherwise be required.

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     To stave off disrepair and cultural irrelevance and remain a joyful destination for world visitors and neighborhood families, Balboa Park requires steady improvement. But in recent years, construction projects or new ideas have often come to grief from the added expense, uncertainty and delay that result from multi-layered levels of approval that still may not meet the unique design needs of Balboa Park. 

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     Realizing the need for a new way to treat proposed park improvements, Stepner and Smith convened an exploratory group of park stakeholders during 2020. 

     The exploratory committee defined a process to guarantee that the unique nature of the park will be considered in all future project proposals. Drawing upon recent planning experience, they envisioned a uniform process for project initiation and approval that would increase efficiency, clarity, transparency and predictability.