El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association to Host Virtual Town Hall on April 8

SAN DIEGO – The El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association (Boulevard BIA) announced today that it will host a Virtual Town Hall on Thursday, April 8 at 5 p.m. to engage with the community’s business owners and residents about applying the Blvd. 20/20 Plan and Complete Community Plans in the District’s Central Hub, which runs along El Cajon Boulevard between the 805 and 15 freeways. This will be the third in a series of Town Hall events the Boulevard BIA is holding to seek input from community members. This event will focus on three main topics: (1) transportation (including making the pilot program for the dedicated bus lane permanent), development (including accessory dwelling units, or ADUs), and (3) business recruitment. The Blvd. 20/20 Plan envisions El Cajon Boulevard as a model for successful transit-oriented communities in San Diego. In recent years, the Boulevard BIA has been engaging with the community on topics such as neighborhood amenities, affordability, accessibility, cultural enhancement and urban living. The first Town Hall was held in June 2018, in collaboration with the Housing You Matters Coalition, and focused on the subject of developing housing for all income levels within the community. The second Town Hall, held in December 2019, focused on mobility and culminated in the successful launch of a new dedicated bus rapid transit (BRT) lane along a 2.7-mile stretch of El Cajon Boulevard between Park Boulevard and Fairmount Avenue. The April 8 Town Hall, which will be held virtually due to COVID-19, will include a variety of speakers, including: ● John O’Connor, Tootie Thomas, Beryl Forman - El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association ● Sean Elo-Rivera – San Diego City Council Member, District 9 ● Brian Schoenfisch – City of San Diego Program Manager, Community Planning & Implementation ● Mary Lydon – Visionary Land-Use Expert ● Andrew Malick – Developer, Founder/CEO of Malick Infill Development ● Daniel Kay – Civic Community Partners

Schoenfisch will discuss residential and mixed-use infill development along the Boulevard, including affordable and market-rate housing, as well as how ADUs in adjacent neighborhoods can help address San Diego’s critical housing shortages with help from Civic San Diego, Urban Corps and a new housing toolkit to streamline the ADU building process with the city.

In addition to the virtual Town Hall event, The Boulevard BIA is looking to engage with the community through in-person activities, including a self-guided tour of noteworthy development sites and an interactive scavenger hunt in partnership with local businesses. (Pedal with Peeps)

More information and updates can be found on the Boulevard’s Facebook page.

“The pandemic has been an incredibly challenging time for everyone, but it has also provided an opportunity to reflect and reimagine what the future of our urban communities will look like as we return to normal,” said Beryl Forman, marketing and mobility coordinator for The Boulevard BIA. “We are seeing business districts in many cities, particularly in New York City, using this time to invest in community outreach, to gather feedback and collectively reimagine public spaces and how we can build back stronger, better and more resilient for future challenges.”

“We are so proud of the resilience and innovation we have seen with small businesses on the Boulevard over the last year,” said Tootie Thomas. “We are also optimistic about what the future holds in the months and years ahead. We are seeing a significant uptick in new business licenses in the area, as well as exciting progress being made on major development projects. We believe the expansion of ADUs will be a game-changer for our mid-city neighborhoods, as we move towards our vision of making El Cajon Boulevard a model for a successful transit-oriented community in San Diego.”

About the El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association

Formed in 1988, the El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association is an economic development agency comprised of over 1,000 local small businesses committed to improving the physical and economic conditions along the El Cajon Boulevard corridor and its surrounding neighborhoods in Mid-City San Diego. The district encompasses 60 blocks along El Cajon Boulevard, from Park Boulevard to 54th Street, including the communities of University Heights, North Park, Normal Heights, Kensington, Talmadge and City Heights. More information is available at www.theboulevard.org.