Allison Avenue Streetscape Work Gets Its Moment in the Sun

It takes a village to improve the street leading to The Village.

City officials including Mayor Art Madrid and Public Works Director Greg Humora on Tuesday afternoon singled out some of the folks who brought the new Allison Avenue streetscape project to award-winning fruition—even noted in Wednesday’s Page 3 article and related story in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Humora, speaking under a shade tent east of the library with a couple dozen city staffers and dignitaries present, noted the work of several people and companies in the months-long effort to make the street in front of the Civic Center more walkable and watchable.

Humora cited staff members and contractors:

• Hamed Hashemian, project manager
• Dave Laslo, landscape and irrigation inspector
• Infrastructure Engineering Corp., Scott Adamson, resident engineer
• Estrada land planning, David Preciado, landscape architect
• Kimley-Horn, Scott Colvin and Rich Pettie, civil engineers
• Hazard Construction, general contractor

Humora said the genesis of the project dated to 1990, when the City Council adopted the La Mesa Downtown Village Specific Plan to better utilize the land within the civic center, improve the downtown area with beautification, safety improvements, walkability enhancements, and increased transit connectivity.

He also noted:

• The plan showed diagonal parking and landscaping along Allison Avenue, landscaped medians on University Avenue, closing Date Avenue at University and vacating Nebo Drive through the civic center.
• The civic center began its transformation when La Mesa residents approved Proposition D in 2004.  The first project constructed was Fire Station 11.
• In 2007, the city applied for and was awarded a $2 million grant from a new SANDAG program called Smart Growth Incentive Grants.  The purpose of this program was to invest in infrastructure that would create healthier communities, healthier lifestyles and a healthier environment or smarter growth.  The goal of the program was to transform public spaces into more livable, smarter spaces using the concepts of walkability, traffic calming, and complete streets.
• La Mesa’s goal was to transform the streets surrounding the civic center, University Avenue and Allison Avenue from streets that you just drove through to places that you wanted to be.
• The grant was first used to replace the sidewalk in front of the new library and post office building.  That building was constructed on what used to be a parking lot.  Now there is an award winning civic building.
• Next the grant was used for the street improvements around the police station, which allowed the Prop. D money to focus on the building.  Now we have another award-wining civic building.
• And finally the last piece were the improvements to Allison—constructed in four phases to allow for Oktoberfest, bus stop operation and the relocation of the police station while keeping the fire station operational.
• Allison Avenue now has diagonal parking that significantly increased the on street parking.
• New expanded bus shelters for bus patrons to wait more comfortably
• 10-foot-wide curb ramps as opposed to the standard 4-foot-wide ramps to improve accessibility for strollers, scooters and wheelchairs that are using the sidewalk
• Curb bulb-outs at intersections to increase pedestrian visibility and shorten crossing pedestrian crossing distances.
• Enhanced crosswalk to provide visual and audible queues for motorist to potential pedestrian activity.
• Decorative and pedestrian scale street lighting.
• Street trees to visually narrow the street and provide a buffer between the pedestrians and the vehicles
• Wider sidewalks to give pedestrians more room to walk and congregate if they like.
• Decorative sand blasted concrete sidewalks that do not reflect sun light and are more appealing to the pedestrian.
• Landscaping that is used for storm water retention to reduce storm water pollution and reduce the need for irrigation.
• Landscaping that is drought tolerant that doesn’t need as much irrigation.
• Street furniture for people to relax
• Mid-block crosswalks with in pavement flashers to provide safe enhanced places to cross the street and improve connections between transit facilities and civic facilities.

Humora thanked SANDAG for its $2 million in funding through the Smart Growth Incentive Grant Program and the TransNet Program. Metropolitan Transit System funding also was noted, plus Caltrans assistance.

He said the city has also been awarded the Project of the Year by the San Diego chapter of the American Public Works Association for the University Avenue Revitalization Project, which was part of the same grant funding.

“Allison Avenue’s forward thinking design has been recognized by the San Diego chapter of the American Planning Association and the project has recently been awarded ‘complete street design’ project of the year,” Humora said.

Then city officials, including City Manager David Witt and council members Dave Allan, Ernie Ewin and Ruth Sterling lined up parallel to Allison for a ribbon-cutting.

Mayor Madrid joked that he wanted to stretch the yellow ribbon across the street, but Witt wouldn’t allow it.