POWAY FOCUSED ON POST-COVID-19 FUTURE
End to pandemic, mixed-use projects eyed for coming year
P OWAY
The city of Poway will focus on recovering from COVID-19 and completing projects in 2021, said City Manager Chris Hazeltine.
Hazeltine said “sticking a dagger in the heart of COVID” is Poway’s top priority. “We’re going to do what we need to do to get back to normal,” he said. “The vaccine is right around the corner. We want to see parks bustling and restaurants with lines outside the door. That’s our greatest wish.”
He said Poway is also prioritizing the Poway Road Specific Plan for 2021, as several projects along Poway Road are under way.
“There’s a lot going on between The Outpost and Poway Commons,” he said. “We’re tracking that they’ll be done in various forms by next year.”
The Outpost is a threebuilding development under construction on Poway Road, just south of Community Road, on the former sites of the Poway News Chieftain office and Poway Irrigation. Plans include 53 residential units, an “urban food hall,” a fitness center and underground parking,
according to Poway officials.
Poway Commons will be a mixed-use center featuring 97 market-rate townhomes and f lats, and 44 affordable apartments for seniors, officials said. It will also include 2.2 acres of retail in the future. It spans the north and south sides of Poway Road, west of Tarascan and Civic Center drives.
Hazeltine said framing for The Outpost is going up and the project should be finished this year. He added that a lot of earthwork has already been done for Poway Commons.
He said another project the city will focus on is the Fairfield Residential development at the Poway Fun Bowl and Carriage Center sites. The project’s start is “right around the corner,” Hazeltine said. The mixeduse project’s plans include
212 multi-family residential units, officials said. It will also feature 11,364 square feet of commercial space.
Hazeltine said another priority is The Farm in Poway, which was approved by voters in November. The development plan for the former StoneRidge Country Club property in north Poway features 160 singleand multi-family homes, along with open space and public amenities, officials said. Hazeltine said major cleanup of the site is under way and the blight has improved. A demolition permit for the buildings could be issued as soon as this week, he added. “This is a quick-moving project,” Hazeltine said.
Villa de Vida, a two-story apartment complex for lowto moderate-income adults with disabilities on the corner of Pomerado and Oak
Knoll roads, also looks very close to being done, Hazeltine said.
He said perhaps the single biggest project the city will complete in 2021 is the new Mickey Cafagna Community Center in Poway Community Park. The center is on track to open by May and should be both on time and on budget, he said. It will be the base for Poway’s recreation programs at the park, as well as the new home for the Poway Senior Center, officials said.
“It looks different every single day,” Hazeltine said of the construction. “It’s all beyond framed out, the paint is done.” He added that only work on the interior and “hardscaping ” remains.
Aside from the Poway Road and community center projects, Hazeltine said the city will begin several “very significant” water projects this year. He said the water projects are a “super high priority” for Poway, as they are infrastructure projects and “nothing is more important than basic infrastructure.”
The water improvement program will replace Poway’s decades-old clear well with new storage reservoirs, officials said. It will also connect Poway with the San Diego Water Authority’s treated water, creating treated-water pipelines.