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The community of North Park encourages projects that:
Additionally:
New Projects Notice: We require a printed design concept before we will make any recommendation on your project. Pedestrian paths will ideally provide a series of views and a consistent variety of scenes. The discovery of interesting things and places along pedestrian paths contribute to the feel of serendipity and pleasant surprise. Buildings should not dominate surrounding spaces, but should step back or form enclosures in scale with pedestrians. Changes of level are an effective way to create interest and define pedestrian space. Residential units should be encouraged on the upper floors of commercial developments. The mixing of residential and commercial facilities provides a more efficient use of parking facilities and reduces dependence on the automobile. Also encouraged:
Commercial buildings should present open facades to the street. This adds to the pedestrian interest along the street and also provides a security factor based on the visual openness between the street and the building. This is particularly important for any business district to have a pedestrian orientation, which should be reemphasized and enhanced. (El Cajon Blvd remains car-oriented; see separate description.) Provision of private recreational facilities in conjunction with new larger residential projects is desired. The facades of buildings at pedestrian levels should provide a close relationship between the building and street. Blank walls are considered detrimental to this relationship. It is particularly important to consolidate and intensify commercial development within the central business district centered around 30th Street and University Avenue in order to provide the community a central focal point and a strong and viable commercial core. Commercial uses should be mandatory on the ground floor of development within designated commercial areas, but should only be optional for multiuse areas. Lamps and standards should be for people, and not cars, whenever possible. Light quality should be geared to the specific use of the areas, spaces and forms to be illuminated. Lamps should be placed beside walks, not above the roadway. The automobile or parking facilities should not be a dominant element of the neighborhood character. On-site parking should be screened or located in areas not highly visible from the street. Large surfaced parking areas should be broken up with landscaped islands and screened from view by landscaping. This should be accomplished by the use of trees, shrubs, mounding or walls appropriate to the character of the area. Large parking areas should also include patterned paving as a means to enhance surface areas. Landscaping is a major influence on the character of individual streets and maintains a sense of nature in the urban environment. Where feasible, tree massing should be carried into adjacent public and private spaces. Most of the commercial streets have little or no landscaping. The addition of landscaping, particularly trees, enhance the visual environment, provide shade and soften the effect of the pavement inherent in the urban environment. ECB is to remain a major, car-oriented thoroughfare, but not an anonymous strip.
Projects with more than 50 Feet of Frontage These projects should incorporate more usable open space, imaginative site design, and private recreational facilities. Even in high density development, open areas will be provided in the form of balconies, patios and courtyards. Rooftops are a large untapped resource for open uses in multi-family developments. Uses requiring large frontages, such as banks, office buildings, parking lots and supermarkets can disrupt the continuity of a complex of small shops. Large developments should be designed to maintain this continuity by creating additional pedestrian and landscaped areas along the street, providing display windows and breaking up large facades with architectural features. Intense landscaping must be provided to soften the higher density development, and to provide shade. Trees and shrubs should be of adequate size when planted. Native and drought-resistant plant materials are encouraged; large turf areas should be avoided. (For drought tolerant, native California native plants, "Las Pilitas" nursery in Escondido is a resource. Native plants attract butterflies and native birds.) The majority of existing commercial development within the community is old and characterized by small, low scale, one and two story structures. It is therefore important that new development complement the scale of existing development to avoid abrupt and negative changes to the established development character. In some instances, land use designations will permit higher densities than is the norm. It is intended that new development should not ignore existing scale and should provide good design relationships with adjacent development. Relate the height of new buildings to the height of existing development. Exceptionally tall buildings immediately adjacent to low buildings can create problems such as excessive shadows, undesirable wind tunnels, and lack of privacy. Abrupt differences in scale between large commercial buildings and adjacent residential areas should be avoided. Gradual transitions in scale are preferred. | |||||||||
 ©2005 North Park Planning Committee. All rights reserved. | ||||||||||
