Marina wants to know: What should downtown be?

Erik Chalhoub here, asking the question: Do you know where downtown Marina is?

Admittedly, before I started working at the Weekly, I didn’t know Marina had a place it considered downtown, even though I’ve shopped in the area for years. To me, “downtown” means a few densely populated city blocks that emphasize walkability, where storefronts stand adjacent to sidewalks and slow vehicle traffic is restricted to one lane in each direction. 

I’m not alone in wondering where this actually is in Marina. Last night, March 24, City Manager Layne Long told a crowd gathered at the Marina Branch Library that if you asked the public where they thought downtown was, you would receive more than a hundred different answers.

That question was answered when the City of Marina kicked off its downtown visioning process at the meeting: Downtown is considered Del Monte Boulevard from Highway 1 to Reservation Road, and Reservation Road to Bayer Street. The core centers on Reservation Road from Del Monte Boulevard to Crescent Avenue.

But perhaps more importantly, what downtown should be was the question that participants were asked during the workshop.

“We’ve been talking about downtown for a long, long time,” Long said. “We’re at the point where it’s time to make some decisions, but first we want to hear from the public.”

In 2024, the Marina City Council adopted the Downtown Vitalization Specific Plan, a 20-year outlook that envisions up to 1.38 million square feet of new commercial space in the area as well as 2,904 housing units.

Poster boards set up throughout a room in the library showed concepts of what Reservation Road and Del Monte Boulevard could look like over the next couple of decades. That includes roundabouts, green bike lanes, expanded sidewalks and upgraded landscaped medians.

Long points to the Dunes development in south Marina as a major driver of economic development in the city, generating 36.8 percent of annual sales tax from businesses such as Target and Trader Joe’s.

Yet, the downtown area in north Marina generates nearly the same amount of sales tax—36.2 percent, according to Long. And while the Dunes is nearly built out, downtown still has the opportunity to grow.

“We have a ton of potential,” Long said.

It will take years, even decades, to realize that potential. But last night’s workshop is expected to be the first of many opportunities for the public to have their say, so now is the time to help shape that plan for future generations.