Stepner’s Appointment as City Architect Applauded

San Diego has appointed its first city architect, and officials and architects have hailed the selection of Assistant Planning Director Mike Stepner, a longtime city employee.

Stepner will continue to report to Planning Director Robert Spaulding but will also advise Mayor Maureen O’Connor and the City Council on the skyrocketing number of development proposals coming before the city, Stepner said.

“A lot of duties are still to be worked out, but the goal is to get into the design process as early as possible--so the city’s priorities are understood up front, and so it isn’t too far along by the time we see the projects that it’s too late to change,” Stepner said.

“This is not another level of bureaucracy, another person to sit there and say this project is good and this project is bad,” he said. “I’m kicking around how we can make the (lengthy review) process easier, and at the same time maintain and improve the level of quality that we’re looking for here.

“In terms of rules and regulations, I’ll steer more toward the spirit than the letter of the law,” he said.

Stepner, 47, who was a runner-up for the job of planning director when Spaulding was chosen, said his biggest challenge has been--and still will be--following the environmental guidelines of growth-control measures. He will receive a $7,000 raise, to a salary of $84,000, when a replacement planner is found and Stepner takes office, probably in about three months.

O’Connor called for the creation of the post in her State of the City Address in January, and area architects have long supported the idea for continuous oversight of the city environment. O’Connor won money for the job from the City Council in June, and Spaulding interviewed an unknown number of candidates before making the selection, said O’Connor spokesman Paul Downey.

Downey said the mayor considers Stepner “an outstanding choice.”

A number of major cities already have city architect offices, including San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Chicago, and Stepner said he will be steering a middle course between those focusing primarily on either public or private construction.

“We’re going to be concerned with urban design, neighborhood preservation and conceptual design of public facilities,” Stepner said.

Stepner was graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. He then served in the Navy and worked for three years as a private urban planner in Chicago before joining San Diego’s Planning Department in 1971.

“In the past, some (buildings) have gone up too fast and weren’t what we wanted. I think we’re getting better, and there is a whole new community awareness of what we want in San Diego,” he said.

“There are a lot of bad things in San Diego, bad buildings that shouldn’t be here, and we’ll have less of them now,” agreed architect and developer Paul Buss, a member of the Centre City Planning Committee, an advisory group.

“Mike is a city official who is not afraid to take a chance, and this is a position that requires that kind of rare combination. He understands architecture and design, but, beyond that, he also knows how to work the system at City Hall as an advocate for good design,” said Buss, who said he has known Stepner since the early ‘70s.

Buss said one of Stepner’s largest contributions to the city as a planner came with his key role in the redevelopment of the Gaslamp area downtown. “He did street improvements, he got buildings placed on the historical register. He has helped get stuff done,” Buss said.

Edward Grochowiak, president of the 1,000-member local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, described Stepner as “very thoughtful and insightful” and concerned with protecting the architectural integrity of neighborhoods.

“He’s a very balanced architect. He doesn’t have an outlandish or freakish design philosophy,” Grochowiak said.

Another architect, Joseph Martinez, saluted Stepner as the best choice but cautioned that his level of power remains to be seen.