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A Placemaking Journal

San Marcos Creek, California

PlaceMakers
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What happens when communities agree that a long-range vision is necessary, but can’t reach agreement over what it should be? The City of San Marcos presents a good example. Exploring ways to develop a new downtown — one that could serve as an infill model for North County San Diego — the San Marcos citizens’ task force had spent 20 months disagreeing over how to proceed.


san-marcos-ca-illustrative-plan

 

Enter PlaceMaker Howard Blackson who, in coming aboard to lead the Stakeholder Committee, was able to foster consensus and deliver a revised plan to city decision-makers within one year.

The plan, produced in collaboration with WRT, establishes a new, 200-acre downtown grid of shops, restaurants, offices and housing of up to six stories — designed with the highest standards for energy efficiency — along San Marcos Creek, a two-mile stretch of previously unimproved creek bed.

 

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