Language Academy groundbreaking ceremony

College Area addresses its need for parks

(Reprinted with permission from Mission Times Courier, October 7, 2011) 

by Gale Susan Barlow, Chair, Saranac-Mohawk Park Advisory Committee

The Language Academy, a K-8 year-round public school at 4961 64th St., celebrated groundbreaking for an improved recreation field Sept. 14. Through City-School District Recreation Agreements that date back to 1948, the new field will be operated as a joint-use park.

The Language Academy joint-use park will become the second joint-use park in the College Area and only the third park in this notoriously park deficient community. City of San Diego planning documents recommend that the College Area have over 68 acres of parklands, based on population. Even with the Language Academy joint-use park, the College Area will have fewer than five acres of parklands. The Hardy Elementary School joint-use park, at 5420 Montezuma, and Montezuma Park, at 4939 Catoctin, have approximately two and one acres of public park space, respectively. 

Nothing says win-win like a joint-use park. The City and the community receive parklands without the need to purchase property. Schools receive an improved playing field for their students. Joint-use Agreements (JUA) specify shared maintenance costs and schedules. 

"Both the City and the District are maximizing public funds and facilities," said Randy White, San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) real estate specialist. The new Language Academy joint-use park will open in early 2012 with artificial turf, a walking track and a parking lot. The public will enter from Montezuma Road. This 1.5-acre project reflects more than 10 years of strategizing and fundraising by the students, Friends of the Language Academy (FOLA) foundation, PTA, school administrators, former District 7 Councilmember Jim Madaffer, current District 7 Councilmember Marti Emerald, and SDUSD and City of San Diego staff. Parents who volunteered for the park effort included a SANDAG grant writer, Susan Baldwin, and a landscape architect, David Reed. Mike Kenney, of Rolando-based Kenney Engineering, Carlos Avila and Robert Henderson donated professional and leadership services. 

"I remember my daughter, Lily, drawing pictures of the park for a fundraiser when she was in kindergarten at the Language Academy," said Kenney. "She's in high school now." The bulk of the funding for park design and development came from a Community Development Block Grant of over $1 million.                                       

Hardy Elementary School principal Kathy Wolfe has gotten to know her College Area neighbors thanks to their regular use of the Hardy joint-use field. "We have a lot of community people who have been using the park for 25 years," said Wolfe. "They take up collections and contribute to the school." With its proximity to SDSU recreation areas, the Hardy field benefits from spillover of campus lighting.

Existing only on paper is a designated but unfunded College Area joint-use park, at the Harriet Tubman Village Charter School, at 6680 Mohawk St., with a potential 1-acre of public use space In this neighborhood of canyons and cul-de-sacs, no other land is available for park creation. Like the Language Academy park, the Tubman dirt field was recommended for public recreational use in the 1989 College Area Community Plan.

Tubman neighbor Troy Murphree recalls that the Saranac-Mohawk Community Group first met to advocate for a joint-use park on Sept. 22, 2008. With the assistance of District 7 City Council staff, neighbors have since lined up financial support from Developer Impact Fees and won a Council vote for grass turf. Today, the Tubman dirt field and its view of Cowles Mountain remain locked behind chain link awaiting their turn to begin the intricate joint-use park design, development and negotiation process.

This process comprises design input from the community, review by local and state officials, negotiations between the SDUSD and the City of San Diego Park and Recreation Department, the signing of a JUA, and a guarantee of long-term funding for maintenance. 

Murphree describes the long-awaited Tubman joint-use park as a potential " . . . model of sustainability. We envision rainwater collection, graywater use, composting, solar lighting, and recycling stations." 

Tubman principal Lidia Scinski recently sent a batch of over 250 letters, signed by students and parents, to Mayor Jerry Sanders asking for a joint-use park. State officials and College Area community leaders also participated in the letter-writing campaign.

Hardy, the Language Academy and Tubman schools represent the past, present, and future of joint-use parks in the College Area. At the Language Academy groundbreaking ceremony, Councilmember Marti Emerald raised the call that applies to all park bereft College Area residents: "Kids! Are you tired of playing in the dirt"?