There’s hope on the horizon that in 2021 we’ll see “normalcy” start to return to our lives. Although we can’t predict how or when that will happen, getting to a place in which our sports fields are bustling, restaurants and other businesses are operating at full capacity, and people coming together to celebrate our community is at the top of the wish list for the City of Poway.
As we move beyond the pandemic, one of the most prominent changes in Poway you’ll see in 2021 will be to the landscape, with an emphasis on projects that provide diverse new opportunities for meeting our city’s future housing needs without compromising the designated open space that defines our community.
Villa de Vida is nearing completion. This is a long-awaited housing development for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities on the corner of Oak Knoll and Pomerado Roads. The interest list far exceeded the number of units available, highlighting the critical need for this type of supportive housing.
Poway’s “town center” area along Poway Road will evolve this year with three mixed-use development projects in various phases. These projects are a result of a comprehensive effort that brought together community members and planning officials to revise the Poway Road Specific Plan, which guides development along Poway Road. Each project will have some degree of commercial space, but with the focus on filling a critical housing gap with a range of multi-family residential opportunities. One of the developments will also feature a 44-unit affordable housing apartment complex for older adults, with a veteran’s preference for 15 of the units.
With the change in land use approved by voters in November, The Farm in Poway will move forward this year at the site of the former StoneRidge Country Club in north Poway. Demolition of the abandoned club buildings will be underway soon as the first step toward building a unique community that blends housing, open space and public amenities.
All of these projects are important to our city’s future, but none are as anticipated as the completion of the Mickey Cafagna Community Center. The construction of the new community center at Community Park is expected to be completed on time and within budget this May. The center will provide multi-generational programming, with programs for our youngest residents to our oldest, with accessibility and adaptiveness at the heart of its design (learn more at poway.org/mccc).
In 2021 Poway be starting one the largest sets of capital improvement projects we’ve ever taken on as a city. This will include substantial improvements to the Lester J. Berglund Water Treatment Plant Clearwell and a new San Diego County Water Authority treated water connection. The new treated water connection will include major water transportation facilities such as a flow control facility, a pump station, and additional distribution pipes along Espola Road. Having this additional connection will increase the reliability of drinking water for our residents now and for generations to come.
Although we all hope that 2021 will be remembered as the year that things got back to “normal,” we hope that here in Poway it will be a year remembered for much more. We hope it will be remembered as the year in which thoughtful planning transitioned into a pathway for progress that defined our city’s future.