Developer revises downtown campus plan after public pushback; residents press to retain Memorial Park

Developer Tara Frisbie used a City Council workshop on Sept. 22 to present a redesigned version of the proposed downtown campus that reduces residential density, removes a planned hotel and some office space, and adds or enlarges civic and recreation elements on the city-owned Memorial Park site.

The developer’s representative, Mr. Frisbie, told the council that the project team is “listening and slowing down this process” and said the team “are fully endorsing the request to send this to a referendum so that at the end of the day, the public has the final say on this project.” He described changes that cut the previous residential count from about 1,100 in an earlier iteration to roughly 740 units in the latest plan and reduced retail and office square footage, saying the revisions increase on-site, usable green and recreation space.

Why it matters: The plan would reshape about the downtown campus area that includes Memorial Park and existing civic facilities. Residents and civic groups told the city the park is a wartime memorial and core public amenity; dozens of speakers at the workshop asked the council to keep public land in public hands and to preserve ball fields, tennis courts and the banyan-tree canopy.

What the revised plan would change: Frisbie said the new design eliminates a hotel, removes at least one office building previously shown on the west side of Second…