San Bruno is investing in a downtown revitalization — most recently with a grant for up to $350,000 from the San Bruno Community Foundation to replace planters, redo street median landscapes and potentially plant trees on Jenevein Avenue.
The downtown beautification project will take on faulty irrigation systems underneath the sidewalk, which are causing the degradation of current city planters, and plant new vegetation and flowers, Community Services Director Travis Karlen said.
Community desire for investment to be made in the downtown area is clear, Leslie Hatamiya, San Bruno Community Foundation executive director, said. The foundation was established to distribute the $70 million in restitution money the city received from Pacific Gas and Electric after a deadly gas explosion in 2010.
“Especially coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, where a lot of small businesses in San Bruno really struggled, there’s a community desire to boost downtown and small businesses that are the lifeblood of our downtown area,” Hatamiya said.
The current investment comes in tandem with recent City Council approval for the Centennial Plaza improvement project, which has a $1.4 million budget — $500,000 of which is provided by the San Bruno Community Foundation.
The Centennial Plaza improvement project will include a stone plaza, a stage with trellis, festoon lighting, a water station and concrete cube bollards. Many said the project approval was much-needed at the City Council’s Feb. 13 meeting, a sentiment with which Mayor Rico Medina agreed.
“You’ve got to keep up with things. It is time for that lot to become something permanent and useful and gives something to our downtown,” Medina said. “The merchants had wanted to see an investment.”
Rebecca Molano, owner of One Love Cafe in downtown San Bruno, said she and other merchants are happy with the recent investments, which are a start, but there’s more work to be done.
“While we’re very excited, it’s been long overdue and they most certainly need to do more along with beautification,” she said. “There’s safety issues, still holes in sidewalks and general lighting issues.”
Molano said that she feels the city should play a larger role in the general revitalization of downtown, although she’s hopeful that bettering its aesthetic will encourage more of a community atmosphere.
“We are hoping this sparks up more events coming downtown, we hope that this also maybe makes landlords a little more active,” Molano said.
She encouraged residents to stay engaged in City Council proceedings to make their voices heard and ensure the projects are completed.
The city aims to complete the beautification project, Centennial Plaza, and a third project at Posy Park — funded through $200,000 in Measure K funds allocated by Supervisor Dave Pine — by the end of the year.
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The community beautification project will include revitalizing the landscape on the medians on the north and south ends of San Mateo Avenue, updating banners for downtown street poles with holiday, patriotic/summer and general San Bruno themes and replacing the deteriorating marquee signs.
The grant will also fund an assessment and potentially the planting of trees directly in the ground along Jenevein Avenue.
Redevelopment for the beautification project — which now requires a construction contract — will begin in summer, and the city hopes to break ground on Centennial Plaza in March.
The timing of the projects are intentionally designed to prioritize downtown redevelopment for both the community at large and the city’s businesses in general with the foundation allocation money, Hatamiya said.
“Two years ago, we did a community listening campaign and surveyed the broader community about community needs,” she said. “The highlights of the results of that was an interest in revitalizing the downtown area.”
Councilmember Tom Hamilton, a strong supporter of the Centennial Plaza project, said it was necessary to show residents that the city remained committed to reinvigorating San Bruno’s downtown.
“Both the Centennial Plaza project and downtown beautification, these send a signal to our community — both residents and downtown merchants — we are serious about improving our downtown and making it a destination,” he said. “It’s important that we return our downtown to being an economic engine for the city.”
The foundation has funded over $2.3 million in grants for community programs and nonprofits, as well as over $50 million for a new Recreation and Aquatic Center.
And although the foundation’s financial backing came from extreme tragedy, it’s valuable to re-invest the money into the community, Medina said.
“It comes from [an] unfortunate disaster, leaves something that benefits the community for years to come,” he said.
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(1) comment
Hey San Bruno folks, remember that you’re going to have to pay, sometimes dearly, for the privilege of seeing any of the downtown beautification. Wasn’t is just a few months ago that San Bruno instituted paid parking and spent over $2.5 million of taxpayer money (https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/san-bruno-meter-money-stirs-merchant-interest/article_ed2e6cce-560d-11ee-a4e0-6b4e6507e739.html), to siphon your hard-earned money to pay for the privilege of now paying for parking? You get the government you vote for.
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