Viewpoint presents the first of two parts featuring the perspectives of
several Curtis Park architects evaluating the two illustrative site plans submitted
for the CEQA process by Petrovich Development for the proposed Curtis Park Village
development.
The focus of these articles is on land uses, design issues and circulation plans
of the proposed Curtis Park Village, which would incorporate 239 single family
and 310 multi-family residential units along with five acres of park space and
14 acres of commercial uses.
Readers are encouraged to go to the website: www.curtisparkvillage.net
to see color versions of the site plans discussed here. The developer has publicly
committed to cleanup of the site to unrestricted land uses.
Renner Johnston of Marshall Way is an architect with Mogavero Notestine Associates. The firm specializes in architecture, planning and urban design.
"I hope this project will be a national model for a high quality transit
oriented development- a wonderful place that Curtis Park can consider an asset,
a place to shop, hang out and drink coffee on the new 'Main Street' proposed
for the mixed-use area," said Renner. "It should be a place designed
for pedestrians and bicyclists to circulate safely and easily rather than being
designed primarily for cars."
"I would hate to see this place turn out like North Natomas with its suburban
feel, rolled curbs and garage-dominated beige stucco houses," he emphasizes.
Renner would like to see separated sidewalks with shade trees, straight curbs
and parking on both sides of the street. Houses should have a clear connection
with the street and should feature porches with no garage domination.
He advocates using New Urbanist principles to guide the layout and general design
without overly constraining housing types and details, thereby allowing for
architectural variety like that found in Curtis Park.
The most critical omission from both plans in Renner's view is a pedestrian
bridge linking the "mixed use Main Street" of Curtis Park Village
to the Sacramento City College light rail station. He also believes the new
"mixed useMain Street" should shift one block south with a pedestrian
connection to a smaller commercial/parking area. The current disconnect between
Land Park and Curtis Park can be remedied with this pedestrian bridge which
will increase transit use and pedestrian access to the commercial/mixed-use
area. He added that there are public funds specifically designated for this
type of project that the City could get for this development.
" With more connectedness between the old and the new, traffic is dispersed
over more streets," said Renner.
He is concerned there are currently only three principal ways for cars to get
into and out of the site. Renner notes the ease of circulation in Curtis Park
comes from the grid and it is difficult to replicate the grid in Curtis Park
Village due to the constraints of an existing neighborhood.
He thinks the roundabout is an interesting entry feature and will help slow
traffic. He'd like to see two others outside the development considered: Marshall
Way at 24th Street and 26th Street at Fifth Avenue.
He'd also like to see a landscaped median on Fifth Avenue to narrow the driving
lanes, which will slow cars to address the existing speed problem.
Laura Knauss, architect with Lionakis Beaumont Design Group designs education buildings and undertakes master planning. Her architect husband, Nick Docous, also with Lionakis works on major public works projects and is a past President of SCNA. They live on 11th Avenue.
"I love the fact that development is finally going to happen in the rail
yard, says Laura. "We need more housing since we have two nearby light
rail stations."
"The market has finally made this land valuable enough for this kind of
development which offers more single family housing than the original UP plan
that I worked on," she said.
Laura points out that East Sacramento, Curtis Park and Land Park have a successful
recipe of land uses. Integration of multi-family is part of this recipe. Laura
would like to see higher housing density sprinkled throughout the site instead
of concentrating it in one area.
Nick emphasizes the importance of maximizing connectivity between the old and
the new, "the more ways in and out of this development, the better. Think
of it as an organism and its lifeblood is the people that will be coming in
and out," emphasized Nick.
Both Nick and Laura agree on the importance of a strong connection at the southeast
edge so people can easily get to the commercial and mixed-use area. Both believe
the different land uses are much too separated and need to be more integrated.
Laura would like to see some mixed use in the north around the Wayne Hultgren
light rail station, specifically more neighborhood serving retail (to enhance
current retail) and some higher density housing.
Mimic corner duplexes like we have already and add four-plexes designed to blend
in well with the single family.
Laura has mixed feelings about design guidelines. "We get to do whatever
we want to our houses, so we need to be very careful about design guidelines
that are too imposing," she said. "Would the tile house [on 22nd St.]
pass design guidelines? Probably not but it's a delightful addition to the neighborhood.
I love bungalows, but I don't want 239 of the them."
Nick is encouraged by the developer's intent to release the lots to builders
in small numbers, which should encourage architectural diversity, a great feature
of Curtis Park. Both emphasize the importance of the street grid in Curtis Park,
which allows traffic to flow slowly and easily within the neighborhood. Existing
housing along 24th Street makes it challenging to extend this grid and maximize
connectivity; opportunities to increase connectivity should be further explored
in their view.
Bill Harrell formed the Harrell Architectural Partnership located on Broadway with architect and wife Suzanne Wong Harrell. The Harrells live on Fifth Avenue.
"I am concerned that the pace of planning of this development might not
offer enough opportunity to understand its impact, said Bill. As an architect,
I look for detail and these plans don't offer too much detail at this point."
Bill would like the quality of the development to mirror Curtis Park. He, too,
emphasized the value of the street grid in Curtis Park and how difficult it
will be to extend this into the new development.
"I think they ought to attempt to maintain this grid even if it means buying
several houses on 24th Street, he offered. "I'm concerned about too few
opportunities to get in and out of the development."
Without the grid extension, the layout seems too suburban, he suggests. Bill,
like others living on Fifth Avenue is concerned about cars dumping out of the
development onto Fifth Avenue.
He supports utilizing tree wells in Fifth Avenue and a roundabout at 26th Street
and Fifth Avenue as a way of slowing traffic, even now without the new development.
Bill is not supportive of the proposed commercial component since he doesn't
think it reflects current Curtis Park uses and he's worried about the impact
on Food King. He does, however, like the developer's plans to release individual
lots to builders to encourage architectural diversity and make the new development
more interesting. Bill is concerned about the concentration of multi-family
in one segment and would like to see it less concentrated.