Downtown Design Plan Reveals New Possibilities

A cultural center plaza, Kelly Street promenade, wider sidewalks, more accessible parks and an expanded downtown to Purissima Street were just some of the features of a downtown design plan presented last night to to Half Moon Bay residents and city officials.

The plan—along with a set of urban design standards—was a product of months of work conducted this spring by first-year graduate students of city and regional planning at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. They drew upon the ideas of the Half Moon Bay community, which were given during an April workshop and an online survey completed by nearly 320 people. The goal is to create a downtown which aims to increase the economic, civic, and cultural vitality of the area.

Though the plan was ambitious, featuring a set of ideas that included improved city gateways, traffic and pedestrian circulation, streetscaping, and new and improved parks—not to mention big-ticket items like a cultural center, new parking lot and new bridge running over Pilarcitos Creek on Purissima—it was designed to be implemented in phases.

"This can help plan the future," said Zeljka Howard, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo lecturer who, along with professor Vicente del Rio, co-taught the class that worked on the Half Moon Bay plan. "What's not feasible today may be feasible tomorrow," she told the few dozen people assembled in the audience, which included city officials, downtown business owners and residents.

"You'll be able to implement them when the time is right," she said.

One recommendation that Mayor Naomi Patridge and councilmen John Muller and Rick Kowalczyk felt should be tackled sooner rather than later, was to make small changes at Mac Dutra Park. The changes would make the park more inviting and accessible to the public, two concerns shared during the community input process.

"Take down the wall," both Muller and Kowalczyk said wholeheartedly after the meeting, referring to the half-wall on the corner of Kelly and Main streets which blocks visibility into the park from several vantage points. 

Removing the wall, Patridge, Muller and Kowalczyk said, would bring more people into the park and make it more accessible and less intimidating to enter the space.

"More people would also feel comfortable using the park's restrooms," Patridge said. A $50,000 was completed this spring.

The student's plan also called for a stage at the park, which would enable residents and visitors to enjoy outdoor performances.

"We could put in different types of seating arrangements," Patridge said.

Patridge said suggested improvements to create a more defined downtown entry point at Highway 1 and Main Street could be implemented sooner than later. Suggestions included artistic installations, an elevated focal point for signage or sculpture, lighted poles and flowered beds to highlight local plants.

One attendee asked to create community demonstration gardens to showcase the produce of local farmers, and decorate glass panels with waves to highlight the world-famous Mavericks surf break located just past Pillar Point Harbor in Princeton.

Other parts of the plan include:

• Implementing one-way traffic on Main Street, creating a turnaround loop at Filbert Street running to Purissima Street, and switch from angled parking to parallel parking. This would expand the downtown area to Purissima, allow for wider sidewalks, and calm traffic for an overall more pedestrian-friendly experience.
• Installing a new bridge over Pilarcitos Creek on Purissima Street, which would direct traffic into the area (see photo).
• Relocating city hall, currently on Main Street, to the Shoreline Station area. That would concentrate city activities already there (Ted Adcock Senior/Community recreation center and police station) and repurpose the vacant space for public use, like a cultural center.
• Relocating the Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce from its current location to a more prominently defined location for visitors.

The students also developed design guidelines to "promote cohesive design in defined districts, ensure quality design and architecture, and highlight the downtown historic character," the plan said.

Les Deman, chair of the city's Planning Commission, asked the students and instructors if they had any advice to prevent the plan from becoming "storage on a shelf," because the city cannot currently invest the money for most of the recommended ideas.

Del Rio replied that a previous student project served as a draft community plan for San Luis Obispo County, and could be adapted based on feasibility.

Students in previous classes have worked to develop community plans in Imperial Beach, Calistoga and Redding, just to name a few.

Bill Howard, the founding head and Professor Emeritus at the City and Regional Planning Department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, said that in Redding, the community plan helped a private developer get a more comprehensive understanding of community needs, receive guidance on how to move forward with his projects in the area of planning and navigate the city's bureaucracy.

Del Rio said that the private developer hired the class to help him put together a plan for the Sacramento River area, which included his property.

"The planning helped to start the process with the community so that they could meet with him," said del Rio, adding that the process was helpful for public and private investors.

Howard, who has worked in the field for over 30 years, said that he's seen in Virginia and Colorado that these sorts of plans can offer a new perspective and give people a new way to experience their own community.

"I think this was a good investment for our community," Muller said. "This plan was meant to be developed in phases, and these are just ideas for a good start...it's the beginning for the city."

"We can go to the future with this," he said.