Efforts of Designers Beginning to Show in Bustling San Ysidro

High-profile planning and development efforts in places such as downtown San Diego and the so-called Golden Triangle tend to hog headlines and the attention of planners and architects. But, during the last two years, a major effort sponsored by the American Institute of Architects has concentrated on San Ysidro, with some encouraging results.

In terms of sheer activity, the place is mind-boggling: An estimated 35 million people pass through each year, and about 400,000 illegal immigrants are apprehended here. In only 10 years, the population has grown from 4,000 to 22,000, largely because of one of the community’s pet peeves: It has become a prime location for the city of San Diego’s low-income housing projects.

To a significant extent, the influx of large apartment buildings--built either by the city’s Housing Commission or by the private sector spurred by incentives--was the catalyst for the new era of planning in San Ysidro.

Until only a few years ago, the heart of old San Ysidro--especially the area along San Ysidro Boulevard just east of Interstate 5, and the residential neighborhood that stretches along Park Avenue and nearby streets--formed a homey small town that retained a sense of its agricultural roots. Residential neighborhoods were primarily filled with small, single-family homes built on long narrow lots laid out on a grid early this century.

Then came the low-income apartments, and things started to change quickly.

The population shot up, and quaint little cottages soon found their back yards reposing in the shadows of the big new buildings.

Two years ago, the American Institute of Architects and a variety of professionals familiar with urban planning came onto the scene. Under a program known as RUDAT, Regional Urban Design Assistance Team, a group of architects and other experts from throughout the country spent several days in San Ysidro assessing its many problems.

Their report covered not only urban design and architecture, but also how to pay for suggested improvements and how to get these ideas across to the community--sometimes using social events with food and music instead of stiff formal meetings.

Last month, the RUDAT group returned to the community to assess progress, and what they found was encouraging.

“I think there are some tangible results,” said Corky Poster, a Tucson-based architect who had never participated in a RUDAT before. For one thing, the RUDAT team recommended that San Ysidro push for district council elections in the city of San Diego. With the leadership of Casa Familiar, a community organization that serves as a rallying point for a variety of interests, pressure was brought to bear that played at least a small part in district elections being approved by voters last year. The RUDAT team and community leaders believe this will give the small community a better chance of having a City Council member responsive to its needs.

Before the RUDAT report, the site of the 1984 McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro was a touchy subject. The community wanted some kind of memorial, possibly a shrine or monument. Then the RUDAT team recommended that the community try to attract a Southwestern College campus. At the same time, the massacre site was being offered for sale by the city. Community leaders and the college agreed it would make a good site for the satellite office. Today, nearly 800 students attend classes there.

The city of San Diego had already begun widening San Ysidro Boulevard, but the RUDAT team suggested that the section between I-5 and Cottonwood Road, which runs through the heart of the city’s old business district, be left in its original smaller form to preserve an intimate, pedestrian-oriented scale. The city followed that recommendation and did not widen that part of the boulevard. The RUDAT team also would like to see a plaza built at the western end of the commercial district to give the community a central gathering place.

Although San Ysidro is not heavily stocked with buildings of tremendous architectural merit, it has a certain character, ranging from the white stucco, tile-roofed Toreador Hotel, with many small cabanas out back, to the residential area along East and West Park Avenue, known as El Pueblito, a neighborhood full of small, single-family homes along a narrow park that stretches for several blocks, providing a focal point.

San Diego’s Planning Department is nearly done with a survey of historic buildings, which should help preserve buildings worth saving. An updated community plan will specify that new buildings in the area be single-family homes of appropriate scale and design, not huge apartment complexes.

What’s more difficult than creating an idealistic vision for the future is figuring out how to pay for it. There are a couple of reasons for financial optimism in San Ysidro. The city of San Diego is putting $150,000 into a new Community Development Corp. The community is slowly developing its own base of commerce, evidenced primarily by a large shopping center succeeding with a mix of factory outlets for well-known companies like Mikasa, Nike and Black & Decker.

A major source of funding for improvements in San Ysidro could come from a proposed $1-per-car or 25-cents-per-pedestrian tax to be charged to tourists and visitors using the border crossing.

Largely as a result of all the commotion and negative publicity associated with being a border town, lenders have been reluctant to back projects in San Ysidro.

“The banks are one of their biggest problems,” said Judy Atkins, a San Diego architect who worked on the RUDAT. “There are probably more banks per person in San Ysidro than anywhere else, but their services are for people crossing the border. You don’t have community loan officers and community services that banks provide in other small communities. I’d be hesitant to name any bank that’s doing much down there.” The community is hoping to lure a community-oriented bank branch soon.

Working in a low-income, minority neighborhood like San Ysidro doesn’t provide the headlines that downtown San Diego projects do. It is commendable that San Diego architects like Atkins, David Thompson and Stan Keniston have donated their time to such a worthy cause.

DESIGN NOTES: Concrete Dynamics, which designed and built the Onion-winning Ramada in downtown San Diego, is building a 22-story Radisson Hotel on Front Street, also designed by its staff architects. . . . “Brat City or Debutante,” a book chronicling the 28-year history of the local AIA chapter’s design awards, is out. It’s the most thorough book around on local architecture and is available for $20 from the AIA office, 233 A St. . . . Kaplan McLaughln Diaz of San Francisco beat out three local firms and one from L.A. for the job of master planning Del Mar’s new Civic Center.