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PLAN HILLCREST
Plan Hillcrest envisions a complete neighborhood that celebrates its unique identity and honors the legacy of a place that welcomes everyone.
Building on the Uptown Community Plan policy framework, Plan Hillcrest will address housing and development strategies intended to strengthen the business district and bring neighborhood benefits where needed most. The neighborhood’s unique LGBTQ+ history and culture define an identity as a welcoming place for people of all backgrounds, and contribute to its draw as a place.
With a growing housing crisis and a changing climate, more is needed to address housing costs, enhance access, use of transit, and provide public spaces for all to use. Plan Hillcrest will address place-making, connectivity, housing, and the neighborhood’s unique identity to ensure Hillcrest thrives into the future.

Create public spaces that connect people to neighborhood businesses and services.

Address housing needs by identifying areas near transit and services, and increasing housing options that serve all community members.

Celebrate the legacy of the LGBTQ+ community by preserving historical resources and creating new places that honor and promote inclusivity.
Strengthen connections to make it easier to get to surrounding communities and places including Balboa Park, Downtown, and North Park

Support local businesses to ensure a thriving and sustainable business district.

Strategic Plan Priority Areas of Focus
This initiative focuses on the following priority areas of the City of San Diego's Strategic Plan:





Create Homes for All of Us
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Focuses opportunities for homes within mixed-use and residential areas.
Protect & Enrich Every Neighborhood
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Identifies opportunities for public spaces and pocket parks, trails and joint-use facilities.
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Provides guidance for the identification and preservation of historical resources and districts that embody the architectural and cultural history important to the Hillcrest community.
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Celebrates the cultural diversity and history of the LGBQT+ community.
Advance Mobility & Infrastructure
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Identifies opportunities for mobility infrastructure that improve walking, rolling, biking and transit connections.
Champion Sustainability
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Promotes opportunities for urban greening and street trees to address stormwater runoff and climate change.
Foster Regional Prosperity
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Focuses on growth that supports local businesses.
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Promotes local hospitals and employment uses as economic drivers connected to regional transit.
THE PLANNING AREA

GET INVOLVED
Process & Timeline
Plan Hillcrest will include opportunities for public input. In addition to regular meetings with Uptown Planners and their Subcommittee, public workshops, pop-up outreach events and online engagement activities will allow for a variety of public input opportunities throughout the planning process. The community engagement effort will help inform the land use, mobility, and public space concepts that will be incorporated as a Focused Plan Amendment to the Uptown Community Plan.
Please visit the Meetings & Updates page for information on specific opportunities to get involved.

Projected Completion: 2024
Documents
PLAN HILLCREST BROCHURE
The Planning Department created a brochure that describes the Plan Hillcrest Process.
COMMUNITY
SURVEY REPORT
This report summarizes the analysis and findings from the community engagement survey conducted between
April 28 through May 18, 2020.
EXISTING CONDITIONS COMMUNITY ATLAS
This atlas provides baseline information on existing demographic, land use, urban design and mobility conditions within the planning area to help inform the planning effort.
CHOOSE YOUR FUTURE HILLCREST REPORT
This report summarizes the findings from the online engagement platform conducted between March 10 through April 11, 2022
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
As part of this comprehensive planning effort, the City of San Diego is documenting LGBTQ+ history and current cultural heritage in Hillcrest and the buildings, structures and sites important to that history. Building upon the 2016 Uptown Community Plan Update and the 2016 Citywide LGBTQ Historic Context Statement the City Planning Department is partnering with the community to develop a multi-faceted historic preservation strategy for Hillcrest that will include the following:
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A historic context statement specific to LGBTQ+ history and resources in Hillcrest that will guide the evaluation and historic designation of buildings, structures and sites important to Hillcrest’s LGBTQ+ community.
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A Multiple Property Listing that will facilitate designation of individual properties within Hillcrest that have a significant association to the community’s LGBTQ+ history and heritage.
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An evaluation of the Hillcrest Potential Historic District to determine if the potential district (or a modified boundary) is eligible for designation for its association with Hillcrest’s LGBTQ+ history.
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If the Hillcrest Potential Historic District is determined eligible and designated, the City will work with the LGBTQ+ community to develop design guidelines for the designated historic district in order to successfully balance preservation of Hillcrest’s LGBTQ+ history with the continued economic vitality of the community.
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An interpretive plan developed in partnership with the LGBTQ+ community that will honor and celebrate the people, events, buildings and sites (both existing and lost) important to Hillcrest’s LGBTQ+ community. The interpretive plan will provide an exciting opportunity for cultural resource history to interface with urban design, park planning, and transportation planning to create an urban environment that informs and celebrates through way-finding signage, public art, and the like.
This effort marks the first such comprehensive Historic Preservation Planning effort to recognize and protect LGBTQ+ resources in San Diego, and may well be the first such effort in the entire state of California.
CONTACT US
Please contact us with any questions regarding the process or how you can get involved.