Downtown El Cajon Specific Plan and Design Guidelines

planning the places to be

The Downtown El Cajon Specific Plan and Design Guidelines were developed by our team to revitalize and redevelop the city’s downtown. Five new districts were planned with the goal of integrating activity nodes with mixed-use development, open space, pedestrian-oriented routes and multi-modal transportation. Our team also updated a wayfinding signage plan, conducted peer review for the Streetscape design for Magnolia Street, designed the Streetscape Plan for Main Street, and conducted review of development proposals.

CityWorks designed a multi-faceted engagement program. For the community, we gained input through facilitating a walking tour and three community meetings. In parallel, we facilitated an ad-hoc leadership committee including a regional tour of other revitalized neighborhoods and monthly meetings to review the plan’s development, so that they could become its champions. Additionally, development teams that had produced high-quality urban developments in other parts of the region were invited to test the plan’s development standards for economic viability to facilitate the transition into implementation once approved.

Additional services were provided that complemented the plan development. Our interdisciplinary team created an outreach program – “From Now to Wow” – to help ambassadors from the Community Development Corporation mitigate construction impacts of the streetscape project for merchants.

Services

• Urban Planning

• Draft Specific Plan

• Community Involvement

• Architectural Review of Developer Proposals

• Streetscape Design

• Update to Wayfinding Signage Plan

• Open Space and Public Routes 

• Design Guidelines