West Lewis Pocket Park & Goldfinch Overlook Project
The West Lewis Pocket Park is complete, stop by and enjoy your new park - it's a great place to eat lunch or read a book! The park won a 2012 American Society of Landscape Architecture Award! We are still working on extending it to Goldfinch Overlook however!
Download a larger pdf of the plan here.
West Lewis Street Pocket Park
The West Lewis Street Pocket Park is located in the Uptown neighborhood of Mission Hills. The portion of West Lewis Street from Falcon Street to Goldfinch Street is currently unimproved right-of-way that is utilized as a walking trail. Residents living near the unimproved right-of-way have been working for over seven years to develop this passive pocket park. The pocket park has created an opportunity for neighbors, local business owners, community groups and local landscape architects to work toward a common goal of creating a public space along a prominent canyon rim in Mission Hills.
The passive pocket park includes a new sidewalk along Falcon Street, ADA accessible curb cuts, drought-tolerant landscaping, trees, artwork, as well as canyon viewing benches. The construction of the pocket park was paid for by Development Impact Fees (DIF) that the City collects from new residential development within the Uptown Community Planning area. The City allocated $450,000 in DIF for the construction of the park.
Here are some photos of the park:
Goldfinch Canyon Overlook Project
This initiative taken on by the Mission Hills Town Council will remove non-native plants from the top of the Goldfinch Canyon in order to create a public viewing area with a bench that overlooks the Goldfinch Canyon. In addition, this effort will provide funding to rehabilitate the “ Private Places in Public Spaces” Art Posts located at the intersection of Goldfinch Street and West Lewis Street that were installed by Richard Keely and Maidie Morris in 1995. The original focus of this artwork was to “help people realize these locations offer opportunities to views and are not just safety barriers or guardrails”. The artwork consists of 12 wooden posts that are covered in small pieces of copper. The copper has been stamped with word thoughts from the community.
The artwork is located one block north from the heart of the Mission Hills Commercial Core. The sidewalks along Goldfinch Street lead directly to the Goldfinch Canyon Overlook and art posts. This project is a natural place to walk from the Commercial Core that allows residents and visitors alike to enjoy the beautiful, expansive views into Goldfinch Canyon.
Due to the City’s budget constraints and other funding priorities, the artwork has fallen into disrepair; a number of the posts are degraded and detached from their bases. In addition the art posts are covered in vegetation and some are marked with graffiti. The entire overlook is over grown with mostly non-native vegetation.
As part of the ongoing San Diego Canyonlands, Inc. initiative (www.sdcanyonlands.org), providing visual access to our canyon systems in San Diego has become important to community and civic leaders. By enhancing the artwork and viewing platform, this project would not only implement the strategies put forth by the Canyonlands initiative but also would assist in implementing the Lewis Street Pocket Park that is currently under development for the portion of West Lewis Street between Goldfinch and Falcon Streets.
