Plans for La Mesa’s revamped city center have been in the works since the turn of the century.
The goal is to update the city’s public safety and administrative buildings that have been around since the 1950s and 1960s.
The city made solid progress early on, building a new fire station, “interim” library building, post office building and police station in the span of six years. But since 2010, some residents feel the momentum has slowed. In recent years, the city has completed studies and assembled a library taskforce, but residents are eager to see results on the ground.
La Mesa resident John Schmitz has followed the city’s plan since 2008.
“We've been putting this off long enough,” Schmitz said. “Let's give our employees a better place to work, and let's give our community a better place to use the library.”
City manager Greg Humora said La Mesa had shifted its focus to building affordable housing in the last decade. But he’s optimistic about a new timeline laid out at a recent City Council meeting. It calls for the construction of a new city hall by as early as 2029.
“That would be amazing if we could pull that off,” Humora said. “I think it's doable.”
But first, the City Council has to approve the new timeline. The city then has to find a developer and establish a financing plan.
Two decades in the making
The city’s grand redevelopment plans focus on an area known as the “Civic Center," which is bordered by Spring Street, University Avenue and Allison Avenue.
La Mesa voters approved a bond measure in 2004 that funded the construction of a new fire station and police station. Those buildings opened in 2006 and 2010, respectively.
The city also finished construction on a new library building and post office in 2008.
City staff labeled the building an “interim” library, with the hopes of securing state funding for further development. But that funding hasn’t materialized.
Since then, new construction on the Civic Center plan has slowed down.
The city has completed lots of paperwork in the intervening years. The city released a feasibility study in 2016 to explore routes for redeveloping buildings like city hall.
Since then, Humora said the city presented additional studies in 2019 and 2023, still weighing their options. The council also asked staff to create a library taskforce in 2021 to explore potential paths forward.
In 2023, the City Council decided to expand the existing library into the adjacent post office building. That would add more than 6,000 square feet to the current library space. The city will have to build a new post office building alongside the new city hall.
Humora said that in the last decade, the city has prioritized building affordable housing at the former police station lot on Allison Avenue. He said that the city had a deadline to get that development done. Now that it’s completed, the city is reprioritizing the city hall, post office and library projects.
“I think we've moved very fast,” Humora said.
Residents want results
Schmitz has been involved with a local organization called Friends of the La Mesa Library since 2008. The group runs a used bookstore out of the front of the library.
He argues an expanded library is desperately needed.
“It just doesn't have the square footage to properly serve the size of city community that we have,” Schmitz said.
La Mesa’s population size has grown by 11% since the city started exploring redevelopment options in the early 2000s, according to SANDAG.
Other cities in East County, like El Cajon and Santee, have also experienced significant growth in the last two decades. Both are in the process of revitalizing their downtown and business areas.
Schmitz said building a new city hall is also a priority. He worked for the city of La Mesa in the 1990s, so he’s intimately familiar with the aging city hall building that opened in 1957.
The city acknowledges this too. The 2016 feasibility study described La Mesa’s current city hall as “an old building where employees are housed in substandard office spaces with little space or natural light.” The study also noted the lack of space needed for meetings.
Schmitz worked in an office trailer that was added behind the building in the 1980s.
“It was old then,” Schmitz said. “So, the city knows it has space needs.”
Residents reamplified their call for progress on the civic center revitalization, following a new space-needs analysis presented at last Tuesday’s City Council meeting. They expressed optimism about the new plans and timeline the city aims to fulfill.
“I spoke in support of it because this is an essential first step to making this a reality,” said David Harris, a La Mesa resident and vice chair of the city’s planning commission. “It's making progress. And that's what's important.”
New “doable” timeline
At the meeting last Tuesday, Councilmember Patricia Dillard addressed residents’ public comments regarding the library.
“I can appreciate this potential design,” Dillard said. “I especially am excited about our library. This has been talked about for years now.”
The consulting architectural firm, HMC Architects, estimated a $35 million bill to build the new city hall. The plans also lay out options for a new post office, underground parking levels and residential buildings.
Humora anticipates the city hall and post office construction will be completed before the proposed library expansion, so that post office operations are not displaced. He didn’t offer additional updates on the library timeline.
Schmitz expressed his support for the proposed plan, seeing it as one step closer to realizing this decades-old effort.
“I mean, that made my heart skip a beat, because there's been no vision, no timeline at all to consider.” Schmitz said. “I'm not a young man anymore — I'd like to be able to see this in my lifetime.”
