The Relationship between Nature and the City
The Relationship between Nature and the City
The case of San Diego
Introduction
San Diego is a region characterized by varied and unique landscape. It is full of estuaries, beaches and oceans. It also has mesas and canyons, river valleys and estuaries, mountain and hills and also the deserts. The transportation network and this landscape generally define the communities living in San Diego. These aspects have their unique character, scale, and history. The transportation network, landscape, and communities are the aspects that link and frame the people and are the basic aspects that build the city. A unique aspect that one will notice in San Diego is the way the city and nature are closely related through the principles based on the protection of the natural environment.
About San Diego
San Diego is a well known region in the city of California. It is adjacent to the state of Mexico at the Pacific Rim. San Diego is a place that is internationally known through its culture, economy and the natural environment. The city comprises of innovative and creative individuals known for their commerce, science, art, and education. The city is also a vital region in providing national defense. The main challenge that most San Diego people face is the issue of urban planning. This is mainly due to the need of expanding the city yet, at the same time, maintaining the natural and special landscape.
In the past two centuries, the region of San Diego has grown through outwardly expanding into other land areas at their natural state. The continuing growth of the city has called for the need to have a General plan that addresses the current and future growth while maintaining the natural environment for the future generation. There is also the desire of the San Diegan’s to attain growth without expanding to the natural and open land.
Therefore, the region has to establish a strategic framework on the growth of the City without tampering with the natural qualities that define San Diego. This paper will examine the city’s policies that focus, on the need of using the city’s land wisely and services that aim at improving and maintaining the built and natural environment in San Diego. The policies, at the same time ensure that the quality of life among the residents is maintained.
The purpose and function for San Diego’s General Plan.
The General Plan of San Diego City forms the foundation for development. It outlines the constitutional requirements concerning decisions on the use of land in this city. The plan expresses the values and vision of the city and embodies a national policy on the distribution of both the private and public land use. The law of the stat calls upon calls on all the cities to adopt their general plans that guide envelopments in the present and future time. The state law also mandates periodical updating of these plans so as to maintain their value and relevance. Other aspects that should be included in the General plan according to the state law include aspects of Housing, Land use, Conservation, safety, Noise, and Open Space.
The state laws further allow the flexibility of the sates in the way they present these elements. This means that it is up to the cities to optimally include this element for the best ways in meeting the specific needs of the city. The San Diego’s General Plan a presents the requirements of the state in elements such as Mobility, Community Planning, Public Facilities, Economic Prosperity, Safety and Services, Recreation, Urban Design, Housing, Noise, Conservation, and Historic preservation. These aspects have been considered by the urban city planners in designing and planning this city.
Turley (2005) shows that that the main element in understanding the impact of the city to its residents is to look at how the city organizes the places that people live in. He says that this does not by random coincidence that work and business exist in an urban landscape, but it is through well organizes planning of the city and the main functions the city aims to do (Turley, 2005, p 24).
The city planners of San Diego take sufficient time in considering the construction of new placements and structures and also examine how these structures will impact on wildlife and environment within the untouched area and the habitat. Lack of consideration, on how developments impact on the natural habitat will lead to a devastating effect on animals depending on this natural and untouched environment. For examples, the San Diego’s wildlife such as, the rare birds, foxes and coyotes will suffer from lack of food and a place to call home when the natural habitat is destroyed.
These wildlife animals will perish because of the difficulty to adopt a newly changed environment. San Diego Canyon lands in the effort to deal with the demand of building and housing organizations, is committed to advocating for the restoration, protection, and promotion of the valuable creeks and Canyons of San Diego (SDCL, 2012).
The San Diego Canyonlands through its political advocacy is currently concerned with a project that covers over 10,000 acres of the natural open space covered by the city. The success of the San Diego Canyon lands will be seen in the effort of maintaining this huge piece of land to the ownership of the city and to ensure that the land is not build upon. This is a necessary aspect since the preservation of the environment and nature is a vital aspect in the progression of the city.
The urban design is also another virtual aspect in San Diego’s general plan. The urban design comprises of the physical features that present the image and character of a community, neighborhood, or the street. The urban design presents the overall picture of the city and acts as a sensory and visual relationship between the natural and built environment and the people. The natural environment of San Diego comprises of Parks, mesas, canyon, and shore lines. The built environment is the streets and building, which is both, incorporates under the urban designing and framework (San Diego Gov, 2008).
The recreation element
The element of recreation is also addressed by the San Diego General Plan. The aim of recreation is to protect, preserve, operate, develop, enhance, maintain, and acquire the right facilities and opportunities for development within the city. The city of San Diego has more than 38, 930 acres of open lands space and park that provide a wide range of diverse opportunities for recreation. The open space, parks, recreation facilities, and trail serve millions of visitors and residents annually. These natural locations present the visitors with the necessary, environmental, social, mental, and physical healthy.
Parks have been known to improve a person’s quality of life through maintaining of physical well-being and in strengthening of one’s body. The social and mental benefits of the natural habitat include opportunities for passive recreation, and present a visual relief from the common urban development. It also gives people an opportunity for social interaction and for refreshing their minds. The youth can engage in healthy activities in these parks.
Open space and parks have a benefit to the environment through the provision of a natural habitat for animals and plants and acts as a space to absorb urban water runoff into the soil. The open spaces and parks serve as a place to reduce the effect of urban islands winds the San Diego’s City park system supports the industry of tourism and it enhances the region’s ability to retain and attract new businesses.
The environment of San Diego, as well as, its temperate climate, coastal location, and a diverse topology has provided an opportunity for establishing first class open space system and recreation to the residents and visitors of this city. The policies and goals of the issue of Recreation have developed as an opportunity to the already established natural resources and environment of San Diego. The recreation elements also takes advantage of the existing services and facilities so as to help in the attainment of an equal balance within the reaction facilities and to also enhance future needs.
The challenge, however, is the meeting of the recreational and parks needs of the public due to the ever growing population of both visitors and the residents. This challenge is because of the decreasing space of a vacant land. The city is current faced by a huge demand of open spaces and park lands because of the limited number and unusual distributions of these lands and parks across the city. The main problem is seen in the already urbanized and older communities. The element of recreation is, therefore, focused on the development of polices that will address the mentioned challenges and aim in the achievement of accessible, sustainable, and diverse recreation and park system.
The Open space and City Park system
San Diego city is characterized by three different categories of recreation and parks for its visitors and residents. These categories are of recreation are the resource-based, population-based, and the open space. They all include programming, facilities, and land that constitute the municipal recreation and park system San Diego System.
The population-based parks are also the Community and the neighborhood park. These are the services and facility that are close to the residential development. They are meant to serve the daily needs of the communities and neighborhoods. They are located next to learning institutions so as to share facilities and many residents can walk to any of these facilities located within their area.
The open space lands are owned by the city. These parks are located in all areas of the city with mesas, canyons and other natural formations of the land. The purpose of these open spaces is to protect and preserve the native animals and plants while at the same time providing the public with enjoyment and accesses through biking, equestrian trail, and hiking.
The Resource based–parks are centered on the common man-made features and notable natural features, such as, historic sites, habitat systems, beaches, cultural facilities, and lakes. The main purpose of the resource based parks is to serve the needs of the population across the city and for use among the visitors to the city (Kallas, 2006, p 48).
City guidelines on Recreation and Park
The element of recreation provides the guiding policies of the goals, and vision of the city concerning recreation facilities and parks throughout the city and in each individual community. These guidelines are applicable for the resource-based, population –based and open space parks. The policies of recreation further support cooperative and joint agreements on enjoyment and protection of the Canyionlands of this city. These polices do introduce a new concept dealing with the provision of equivalent infrastructure and facilities in all the constrained areas of this city. The policy guidelines call for the establishment of a financial strategy that will fund better for the parks maintenance and developments.
These guidelines have presented a new Master Plan for the parks that calls or the provision of minimal ratio of 2.8 to the Population-based parks to every 1,000 residents. Some new communities in San Diego have almost close to this plan, but, the older communities that relied on the 1979 General Plan are not anywhere close to this new Master Plan goal.
The acquisition of parklands in the communities that have already developed is also a challenging aspect due to the high cost of the lands and also because the already dwellers in those lands cannot be displaced in relation to the land constraints of this city, it is recognized that about 2.8 acres of land can be satisfied through the provision of sufficient facilities for recreation. The Master Plan goal is to define and develop a criterion based on the way the equivalent standards will be applied and measured.
The current planning of San Diego parks is aimed at the establishment of parks network in the whole of the city and to evaluate the whole recreational uses, facilities and services (SanDag, 2012). The General plan of San Diego aims to enhance and protect the existing recreation assets and parks and to develop strategies for implementing the community needed. The general plan aims at ensuring there is equitable access to recreational facilities and resources and to establish a sound financial mechanism that will enhance, maintain, and develop a park network of the city and provide the needed recreational facilities.
The General plan for San Diego also focuses on the conservation of planned preservation, management and proper utilization of landscape and nature resources. The Conservation Element Plan also has policies for resources conservation that are to the environment of this city. These are the resources that define the identity of the city and are relied on for economic propriety. The main resources of San Diego include natural materials, bio-diversity, air, land, waters, topography, energy, views and energy. The most cost effective strategy of San Diego is to focus on the conservation of reliable resources supply needed presently and in the future.
The City of Villages strategy for example has a direct impact on the development of some areas that are served by the conservation strategy (San Diego Magazine, 2006). The transit-served growth is an effect use of land in the urban areas that aim at reducing the impact of human activities in the environment. It aims to develop the urban areas that are attractive for transit, bicycling, and walking instead of using automotive travel. This means that the aim is to reduce the use of automobile travel to places that can be reached through other alternative means. This will see the preservation of the air quality by lower the level of greenhouse gas emission. The automobile gas and oil leaks are also decreased when automobile use is reduced.
This leads to the improved water quality in the whole of the city. The region of San Diego has taken strategies to address the impact of climate change. The city is focused in reducing its share of gas emissions through energy conservation, fuel efficiency, and making use of renewable energy. The goal of the city is to achieve a sustainable development in the relationship and balance between ecology, equity and economy. The implementation of policies for sustainable development in this city will reduce the degrading environmental effects. This is through encouraging the innovation of clean technologies, reduction of greenhouse gas emission and through suitable building practices.
Conclusion
The San Diego General Plan aim to provide a strategy for the future development of the region. This is a strategy that values community’s distinctiveness and recognizes the developments within the major metropolis of San Diego. The plan aims at maintaining the natural environment and at the same time ensures that the quality of life of the San Diegan’s are improved and maintained. Plans that deal with the conservation of natural environments such as Parks and Open places can be seen in the recreation and preservation plans. The San Diego Canyon lands politically advocates for the preservation of these natural environments and ensure that the local government does not sale this natural habitat.
References
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