Health & Environmental Justice
Planning, Implementation & Outreach Projects
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Project Background:
The California Strategic Growth Council funds the TCC Program for community-led planning, development, and implementation projects that achieve major environmental, health, and economic benefits in the state’s most disadvantaged communities. The program funds the communities most impacted by pollution to choose the strategies and projects best suited to achieve their community vision and enact transformational change.
Project Overview:
The Urban Collaborative Project (UCP) was awarded a two-year TCC Planning Grant to activate the Community Planning Collaborative for a Green Southeastern San Diego, piloting in the neighborhoods of Chollas View, Emerald Hills, and Lincoln Park (TCC Planning Area).
The planning initiatives include:
Urban Greening Plan
Identify and map priority areas for tree planting, green spaces, and community-led maintenance with the intent to provide clean air, environmental cooling, and walkable neighborhoods.
Clean Mobility Vision
Identify clean mobility priorities through community walk audits and the Annual Transportation Justice Expo to gauge opportunities for safe walking paths, bike lanes, and electric vehicle infrastructure.
Chollas View Neighborhood Equity Plan
Develop a Streetscapes Plan for Chollas View that outlines infrastructure improvements for health and environmental equity.
Health & Environmental Justice (EJ) Education
Provide health and EJ education through Resident Leadership Academies, resulting in community improvement projects for greenhouse gas reduction, climate resiliency, and emergency preparedness.
Community Land Trust (CLT)
Create a vision for a CLT that identifies land for community benefit and ownership, expanding economic opportunity, shared prosperity, and avoiding displacement.
Anti-Displacement Strategies
Develop a holistic displacement avoidance plan by evaluating displacement pressures, researching best practices, and highlighting new developments coming to the area.
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Project Background:
The Euclid Corridor Stewardship started as a pilot implementation project from the Urban Collaborative Project’s TCC initiative focused on green community planning in Southeastern San Diego. Community members were excited about improvements but worried about how to keep them up over time. Because of this, creating a community-led maintenance plan became a top priority. The San Diego Foundation provided support to launch this pilot in line with TCC goals.Project Overview:
The Euclid Corridor Stewardship Project connects Brooks Huffman Plaza to Chollas Creekside Park with a community-led maintenance plan along Euclid Avenue. It uses urban greening, public art, and local stewardship to put the Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) Maintenance Plan into action. This project creates a cooperative model to care for trees, public spaces, and green infrastructure in Southeastern San Diego.The implementation project initiatives include:
Remediation of Chollas Creekside Park
UCP works with San Diego Canyonlands to assess and remediate Chollas Creekside Park. This involves the removal of invasive plants along the creek and the organization of community clean ups to remove litter and debris. Native plants will be added to the park in order to enhance the chollas creek habitat. Community involvement is targeted toward the adjacent youth centered institutions surrounding the park like Horton Elementary, Elementary Institute of Science, Access Youth Academy, Lincoln High School and more.
Pilot SESD Community-Led Urban Greening Maintenance Action Plan
In preparation for the City of San Diego’s Urban Forestry Department’s scheduled tree plantings through their Ready, Set, Grow Program and UCP’s placemaking activations, UCP is seeking to pilot a Community-Led Urban Greening Maintenance Action Plan. Through our Transformative Climate Communities Planning, UCP is designing and developing a maintenance plan in partnership with residents through our Urban Greening Equity Workshops and events. Using this feedback, UCP will pilot the maintenance plan at a smaller scale to maintain the coming placemaking and plant installations on Brooks Huffman Plaza at the intersection of Euclid and Imperial Avenues, Chollas Creekside Park, and the coming trees along Euclid Avenue. This creates a pilot maintenance corridor along Euclid Avenue that will help UCP and residents assess what changes should be made for the larger scale activation of the maintenance plan. We seek to design and activate a green workforce development program for our communities that ensure the sustainability and continued use of community green spaces.
Community Connection through Placemaking in Southeastern San Diego
UCP will be activating event programming in alignment with placemaking and maintenance efforts. This includes our annual placemaking activation of Brooks Huffman Plaza, Coffee & Community Pop Up at the Four Corners of Life. This serves as an opportunity for residents to meet their neighbors and an outreach opportunity for residents to become involved with the community-led Maintenance Plan. A pop up event will act as the launch point for placemaking at Brooks Huffman Plaza and celebration of the overall maintenance plan. More activations will occur between each location, keeping residents engaged with their community gathering spaces.
Risk Assessment and Impact Evaluation
SAGE Project will provide UCP with technical assistance and data collection, including attending community workshops, gathering community feedback, measuring GHG levels, and measuring and climate impacts of the project (i.e., temperature, urban heat island, carbon footprint).
Unhoused Community Engagement
UCP will engage and integrate unhoused community members in the stewardship of Chollas Creekside Park and the Euclid Corridor while connecting them to housing, healthcare, and other resources. UCP is building partnerships with local service providers to deliver on-site outreach and foster long-term inclusion in community care systems.
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Project Background:
The Regional Decarbonization Framework (RDF) is a regionwide vision for achieving zero carbon emissions by 2045. It helps understand the greatest challenges this goal faces and envisions the next steps for community-driven climate action. This playbook was led and created by the County of San Diego - Office of Sustainability and Environmental Justice (OSEJ) department.
Project Overview:
In partnership with the OSEJ, UCP helps lead Community Climate Conversations. This is a a series of community outreach engagements dedicated to facilitating discussion and education surrounding sustainability, decarbonization, and potential community improvement projects, guided by the county’s RDF playbook.
The outreach initiatives include:
Community Climate ConversationEvents
Host events in strategically select areas of the San Diego region that are most marginalized or under served in response to environmental and climate justice.
Community Improvement Projects
Identify community led projects that align with the RDF playbook and overall vision for achieving zero carbon emissions by 2045.
