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4 GRAND PARK DESIGN ELEMENT DESIGN BACKGROUND The Phase I Specific Plan applied "neo-traditional" planning principles to the development of residential neighborhoods within the Phase I Area. Neo-traditional planning is based largely on the concept that higher density neighborhoods with social gathering areas and pedestrian oriented streets are more conducive to neighbor interaction, thus creating more livable communities. A variety ofresidential, commercial, and park uses are integrated together, with the neighborhoods organized around a village square, and interconnecting circulation patterns that decrease the need for vehicles and create pedestrian oriented outdoor environments. The basis of this way of designing neighborhoods is the traditional pattern of the American city form from the early 1900s to the post-World War II suburban expansion. The Phase II Specific Plan focuses primarily on the development of public facilities, parks and open space within the 3l8-acre, City-owned property. The City envisions the entire Phase I and II Bernal Property areas as a 516-acre integrated community, set within a "Grand Park" environment. The defining characteristics of the Grand Park setting are: stately, commanding presence, substantially forested, and recognizable form. The challenge for the Phase II Plan is to integrate the Phase II Grand Park concept with the Phase I Neo-traditional planning principals. The Phase II planning principles are readily drawn from the icons of American urban parks. Appropriately, the principles fundamental to Neo-traditional planning evolved within an overlapping time-frame with grand parks in the United States, and are therefore compatible. Historical examples offer a perspective on the development of grand parks over time, including Central Park in New York and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Both were conceived and originally located on outlying areas of the city. Both sites had a clearly defined boundary derived by the street grid that has not changed much over the life ofthe parks. Programming of each park has incrementally adapted to generational needs, and abundant landscaping has matured. Today, these parks stand as timeless and dominating symbols of nature in the city. Over the past 150 years of evolution, they have become the focus of and surrounded by the community, even though the original intent was to create them in areas far away from the city center. Grand parks typically have several features in common: cultural facilities such as museums, community centers, lakes and ponds, play fields, and circulation systems that separate vehicles and pedestrians. These parks serve a wide variety of demographics and have become central in Administrative Draft, Bernal Property Phase II Specific Plan, October 25, 2005 Page 23