Proposed downtown pedestrian plaza could block Maple Street

By: PAUL EAKINS - Staff Writer | Monday, July 9, 2007 11:09 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO -- A proposed downtown pedestrian plaza could close Maple Street between Grand Avenue and West Valley Parkway under five of the seven variations to be considered Wednesday by the City Council.

The Downtown Business Association and businesses around the one-block stretch said Monday that Maple Street sould have at least one-way vehicle access from Grand Avenue to West Valley Parkway. So too did the developer of a new luxury hotel planned next to City Hall just north of the Maple and West Valley Parkway intersection.

"We want it to be a pedestrian area," said Debra Rosen, chief executive officer of the business association. "I think that's totally exciting, and we need a pedestrian area. ... But we don't want to cut off a thoroughfare."

The pedestrian plaza is meant to create a "pathway" connecting downtown to City Hall; the California Center for the Arts, Escondido; Grape Day Park; and city parking lots on the park's north side, Assistant City Manager Charlie Grimm said Monday. It also would be a gathering place where special events could take place, he said.

"A critical element of the future of downtown is what we do with Maple (Street)," Grimm said. "There has always been some controversy when the Center for the Arts and City Hall was built that it didn't really do a lot for downtown."

The council is expected to choose which of the seven alternatives it prefers, to direct staff members to hire a landscape architect to design the plaza, and to approve a $30,000 budget adjustment to develop a corridor master plan on Maple Street from Second Avenue to Woodward Avenue.

The council meets at 4 and 7 p.m. at City Hall, 201 N. Broadway.

Four project variations allow vehicle access halfway down Maple Street either from West Valley Parkway or from Grand Avenue to the alley in the middle of the block, permitting access to one or two parking lots off of Maple Street, according to a staff report.

Other alternatives call for the street to be blocked entirely except for alley traffic, provide a single northbound traffic lane from Grand to West Valley Parkway, and create two lanes of traffic similar to the current set-up, but without angled parking along the street, the report says.

The pedestrian plaza will be funded by a $935,000 "smart growth" grant from the San Diego Association of Governments and $165,000 from local gas taxes.

Larry Kimball, director of hotel development for C.W. Clark, Inc., a La Jolla developer that plans to build a luxury Marriott hotel between City Hall and the Center for the Arts, said that although he likes the idea of the pedestrian plaza, the street should be open.

"It certainly facilitates entry into the hotel," Kimball said.

Mike Peters, president and chief executive officer of Bank of Escondido, agreed.

"If they close it (Maple Street) down, I probably wouldn't have the bank here anymore," Peters said. "I've got to have the parking lot."

Grimm said the city may not be ready yet to start blocking streets.

"I think at some point Maple maybe ought to be closed down and become totally a people place," Grimm said. "I think the best alternative short of closing it down is to have it as a one-way access from Grand to the Civic Center Plaza."

Grimm said he wants the pedestrian plaza to be finished in time for the opening of the hotel, which Kimball said the developer should begin building in early 2008 and complete by the middle of 2009.

-- Contact staff writer Paul Eakins at (760) 740-5420 or peakins@nctimes.com.

Escondido City Council

Other agenda items the council will consider Wednesday:

An appeal by the owners of a historic home that city officials say is a public nuisance because of its severe state of disrepair and have ordered to be fixed or vacated;

Imposing a five-year development moratorium for a site in northern Escondido and other penalties because the land owner illegally cleared and graded the 4.52-acre location;

Approving City Plaza, a proposed development on 0.8 acre at Third Avenue and Escondido Boulevard that would have 55 rental apartments, more than 9,000 square feet of commercial and retail space and a 126-space parking garage.

Giving a 1 percent pay increase to City Manager Clay Phillips and City Attorney Jeff Epp to give them the same percent pay increase as other city employees. The change will increase their annual pay for the 2007-08 fiscal year from $217,865 to $220,043.

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