San Diego, CA – Petco Park received the “Catalyst Project” award during the recent 2005 Smart Growth Awards for Excellence presented by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) San Diego/Tijuana chapter at the Omni Hotel in San Diego. ULI officials cited the project’s positive affect on the surrounding neighborhood and its effective mitigation of contaminated soils.
In November 1998, San Diego voters overwhelmingly approved the development of a 46,000-seat ballpark. As with most urban redevelopment projects, management of environmental challenges proved critical. Environmental Business Solutions (EBS), the San Diego office of SCS Engineers (SCS), was instrumental in the successful redevelopment of this 26-block area of downtown San Diego, which resulted not only in the construction of the ballpark home of the San Diego Padres, but also numerous hotels, condominiums, restaurants and parking structures.
SCS provided environmental consulting services to Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) on more than 175 parcels owned by more than 100 separate property owners. SCS services included: conducting Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments; and preparing an area-wide “master” remediation work plan, unique property mitigation plans, health and safety plans, and a community health and safety plan. Other SCS responsibilities included; project management; oversight of other environmental consultants; preparation of health risk assessments and site conceptual models; development of risk-based corrective action levels; and remediation construction for 19 blocks of the project area. SCS also provided assistance with cost recovery efforts under California’s unique Polanco Act, litigation support, and expert witness testimony on behalf of CCDC.
“The site remediation of Petco Park signified a highly successful collaboration between CCDC and SCS, together with a commendable effort on the part of our project team members tackling such a large-scale and complex project,” said Dan Johnson, founder of Environmental Business Solutions and Vice President of SCS Engineers. “Many of us at SCS became impassioned in this project over the course of working on it for several years. Having it culminate with a prestigious ‘Smart Growth’ award made it all the more gratifying.”
