SLO reviewing future of Mission Plaza, downtown area
San Luis Obispo residents have two chances this month to learn more about two projects that will guide the future of Mission Plaza — sometimes referred to as the heart of the city — and the overall downtown area.
The first project, called for in the city’s 2015-17 financial plan, would adopt a downtown concept plan to guide private and public developments in the city center.
The second project, the Mission Plaza master plan, would create a plan for the entire plaza and guide future maintenance and development projects there. A carryover project from the previous two-year financial plan, the plaza plan would also be finished by the end of June 2017.
A joint open house will be held Saturday for the public to learn more about both projects. On Feb. 27, a workshop will be held on the downtown concept plan.
The current downtown concept plan is 23 years old, with a resolution adopted by the San Luis Obispo City Council in 1993 to revisit it every five years.
Three of the original volunteers who developed that plan are on the creative team overseeing the update: Pierre Rademaker, founder of Pierre Rademaker Design; Chuck Crotser, a lecturer in Cal Poly’s architecture department; and Ken Schwartz, a former San Luis Obispo mayor and professor emeritus of architecture at Cal Poly.
Five residents have also been appointed to the team: Jaime Hill, chair of the city’s Cultural Heritage Committee; Matt Quaglino, owner of Quaglino Properties; Annie Rendler, a project manager at Cal Poly; Vicente del Rio, a professor in Cal Poly’s city and regional planning department; and Chuck Stevenson, a former county planner and past member of the city’s Planning Commission and Architectural Review Commission.
Officials will also consider expanding Mission Plaza by temporarily or permanently closing the so-called “dog leg” formed by Broad and Monterey streets next to Mission San Luis Obispo and the history center.
The idea was first raised in 1949, according to past Tribune articles.
In 2002, a nearly united City Council voted not to close Broad Street to expand Mission Plaza, with Schwartz, then a city councilman, casting the dissenting vote.
At that time, the city spent $63,000 figuring out how it could block off the street.
Information on both projects is available at www.slocity.org/downtown or by contacting Associate Planner Rebecca Gershow at 781-7011 or rgershow@slocity.org.
If you go
A public open house on Saturday will feature information on the downtown concept plan and Mission Plaza master plan. The event will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Mission Plaza (or if it rains, at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, 1010 Broad St.). There will be walking tours, kids’ activities and opportunities to share ideas for downtown and the plaza.
A workshop Feb. 27 at the San Luis Obispo County Library from 2 to 5 p.m. will include a brief presentation and small group discussions to help city officials refine and prioritize ideas, brainstorm solutions to key issues and gather information in surveys.
This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 7:28 PM with the headline "SLO reviewing future of Mission Plaza, downtown area."