San Diego's City Of Villages General Plan

San Diego city planners want to adopt a plan for futuredevelopment that they hope will help preserve a high quality of lifewhile incorporating state-mandated housing into the newest version ofthe city's general plan. The plan, called "City of Villages", wasdrafted by city planners and a citizen's committee, and involvesincreasing housing density around designated urban centers andneighborhood centers which would contain shops and public facilities.Planners are concerned that it may be difficult to convince residentsthat higher density living and new housing developments are the bestoption for the future. They also must find a way to fund publicfacilities and infrastructure improvements necessary to accommodate thenew housing. The planners hope that by educating people about strategiesfor accommodating growth and by showing real-life examples of highdensity communities, residents will be more open to accepting the newplan and new housing units in their neighborhoods. Developers cautionthat neighborhoods often fight projects that increase housing densityand that this new plan may be difficult to implement.