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C-3 San Diego is dedicated to preserving and improving our region's built and natural environments. Our objective is to influence critical policy, planning, and design through education, empowerment, and advocacy.


Each generation must rise to meet the challenges of the modern era. We believe that resolving racial inequality, expanding our public health infrastructure, and building climate change resilience is critical to ensuring the future of our city, our region, and our planet. How we develop our lands and structure our communities today will have lasting and potentially climacteric impacts. C-3 San Diego is pledging to meet these challenges through the following actions:

  • We must contend with the simultaneous crises of climate change, social inequality, racial injustice, and insufficient public health infrastructure. Addressing these complex and unprecedented challenges requires a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and visionary approach. Through our Knowledge Action Networks, we will seek individuals and organizations across disciplines, cultures, and perspectives to form coalitions and identify solutions.  
  • We must acknowledge the role of historic planning decisions in creating and perpetuating structures of racism and inequity. We will work to understand the roots of our bias and right the past wrongs that have harmed communities across our region.  
  • We aspire to achieve an integrated planning process, which is inclusive of all communities. Through education and sustained support, we will empower citizens to influence the trajectory of their communities with true agency and self-determination.


    Temporary Paradise? A Look at the Special Landscape of the San Diego Region, originally printed in 1974, resulted from a grant gifted to the City of San Diego by the Marston family, enlisting the expertise and creativity of two nationally noted planners, Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard. Together, Lynch and Appleyard provided a comprehensive, forward-looking, and beautifully illustrated blueprint, by which the San Diego-Tijuana region could grow and prosper while preserving and accentuating its unique and special characteristics.
    For over 40 years, Temporary Paradise? has provided guidance to C-3 San Diego in our advocacy and education efforts. In the years since its release, C-3 San Diego has generated two complementary documents to it: most recently, Sustainable Paradise, released on our 50th Anniversary. The message of Temporary Paradise? is just as relevant today as when it was written. 

    HISTORY

    In its 60 years of existence, Creating Civic Community (C-3 San Diego) has worked with its all-volunteer Board of Directors and members to promote principles of good design and planning to achieve a healthy environment, strong economy, and social progress in the San Diego/Tijuana region. Founded by Esther Scott and visionary architect, Lloyd Ruocco in 1961, with the support of Hamilton Marston and Ellen Revelle, C-3 San Diego’s objectives were to conserve and promote "a handsome & functional community" through research, education, and coordinated citizen action. 

    C-3 San Diego's rich history of advocacy and civic participation in the San Diego region include advocating to stop the expansion of Highway 163, expanding public park space on the waterfront, and protecting County environmental lands from encroaching development. 

    C-3 San Diego's strategy for preserving its own legacy and ensuring its future is founded on its commitment to membership, partnership, and visibility. C-3 San Diego's members are among the most informed and influential citizens in the region, and this organization is committed to supporting and strengthening its membership by directly engaging members in its important work. C-3 San Diego also knows it can't do it alone and works closely in partnership with other organizations aligned with its mission.

    2023 Board of Directors


    SUZANNE LAWRENCE

    President; Chair - Organizational Development Committee


    Consultant

    Suzanne is a San Diego native who has spent the last three decades facilitating policy makers, academic institutions, government agencies, and industry leaders in defining and achieving success. Her work has focused on fostering strategic intent, building resource development capacity, cultivating collaborative partnerships, and demystifying organizational dynamics.

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    JON SCHMID

    Vice President; Chair - San Diego Bay Knowledge Action Network

    Principal, Cook + Schmid

    Jon has more than 25 years of experience in communications, both as a journalist and a public relations and marketing professional. At Cook + Schmid, Jon develops strategic and integrated campaigns for clients that include public agencies, private and public companies, and nonprofits. His prior experience includes more than a decade of work as a professional journalist, where he was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Jon grew up in San Diego and is board member of the San Diego Maritime Museum and the San Diego Bay Holiday Parade of Lights. Jon earned an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.

        


    KAYLEE DREXEL

    Secretary; Chair - Marketing & Membership Committee

    Designer, BNIM

    Kaylee is a designer at The Miller Hull Partnership. At The Miller Hull Partnership, Kaylee is involved in projects addressing housing in the region as well as sustainability initiatives. She is a southern California native and relocated to San Diego in 2015 to pursue a degree in architecture with a minor in construction and urban design from the NewSchool of Architecture and Design. In addition to her involvement with C-3, she sits on the board for the Balboa Committee of 100 where she chairs the Archives committee.

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    RYAN KARLSGODT
    Treasurer; Chair - Finance Committee


    Senior Associate, Strategies 360 

    Ryan is a Senior Associate at Strategies 360, a full-service research, public affairs, and communications firm based in the Western United States. He previously worked as a research analyst for UNITE HERE! Local 30, San Diego's hotel workers union. Before moving back home to San Diego in 2017, Ryan spent eight years in national politics and was an appointee in the Obama Administration, where he worked on climate change and international development at USAID.

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    JORDAN BEANE

    Director; Chair - Media Content & Management Committee

    Director of Policy and Communications, Regional Task Force on Homelessness

    Jordan Beane is the Director of Policy and Communications for the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. Jordan’s role includes developing and implementing a strategic communications plan, elevating RTFH’s visibility and increasing the awareness of RTFH initiatives. Prior to joining RTFH, Jordan served as the Communications Director and Environmental Policy Advisor to a San Diego City Councilmember. He also helped craft policy on some of the Councilmember’s biggest priorities in the environmental space. Before working in the public sector Jordan spent a decade in the NFL as a digital media professional for two different teams, winning three local Emmy awards for his work.

        




    LAWRENCE (LARRY) HERZOG

    Director; Chair - Bi-National Border Knowledge Action Network

    Educator, UCSD

    Lawrence Herzog (Ph.D.) is a Design Scholar-in-Residence in the UCSD Design Lab and a Lecturer in the Department of Urban Studies &Planning. He is also a podcaster, writer and professor emeritus of city planning in the School of Public Affairs at SDSU, San Diego, California.

    Since 2022, Herzog’s UCSD-based Whose City? podcast brings in guests speaking about urban design, planning, and policy in the cross-border San Diego-Tijuana region. He is author or editor of 11 books on urban planning, design and global/cross-border development, including: Global Suburbs (Routledge) and From Aztec to High Tech (Johns Hopkins). Herzog has lectured at universities in Mexico, Peru, Brazil, France, Spain, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom, and served as urban/regional planning consultant to U.S. and foreign clients. He has published many essays in the popular media including the Los Angeles Times, San FranciscoChronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune, and Voice of San Diego.

        



    HOLLY SMIT KICKLIGHTER

    Director; Chair - Backcountry Knowledge Action Network

    Senior Biologist, ICF

    Holly is a Senior Biologist with ICF with more than 25 years of experience.  She has been instrumental in the San Diego region’s Multiple Species Conservation Planning programs for many years, including with state and local governments. 

    Holly looks for opportunities to integrate climate resiliency and adaptation into biodiversity management using nature-based solutions and new policy initiatives. She has a Master’s degree in Geography from San Diego State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology from UC San Diego, Revelle College.

        


    SERGE DEDINA

    Director; Chair - Border Knowledge Action Network

    Executive Director, WILDCOAST

    Serge Dedina is the Executive Director and co-founder of WILDCOAST, an international conservation team. He also served as the Mayor of Imperial Beach from 2014-2022, where he chaired the SANDAG Borders Committee for six years. Serge has been deeply involved in transboundary planning and conservation issues for the past 30 years, especially related to the cross-border sewage pollution crisis in San Diego-Tijuana. As a conservationist Serge has been very active in promoting binational ecosystem protection efforts in the coastal, marine and insular ecosystems along the U.S.-Mexico border. Serge received his B.A. in Political Science from UC San Diego and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Texas Austin. He is the author of three books on environmental issues in Baja California and the U.S.-Mexico border including Saving the Gray WhaleWild Sea and Surfing the Border. Serge grew up in Imperial Beach where he still resides. 

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    STEPHEN RUSSELL

    Director; Chair - Operations Committee

    President & CEO, San Diego Housing Federation

    Steve is a values-driven professional who is committed to achieving lasting, positive changes in the urban communities of San Diego.

    His efforts are directed through the conscientious practice of architecture, personal investment in sustainable economic development, and advocacy for quality affordable housing & public transit.

        



    ELIZABETH OCAMPO VIVERO

    Director; Chair - Breakfast Dialogues Committee

    Principal Planner, RRM Design Group

    Elizabeth is the Principal Planner at RRM Design Group, a multidisciplinary design firm. Her experience includes participating in multiple aspects of local planning, focusing on land use, urban design, community outreach, and implementation. Prior to joining M.W. Steele Group, Elizabeth worked as a Senior Planner for the City of San Diego Planning Department and was assigned to various communities in central and south San Diego. Elizabeth is also a board member of the San Diego Chapter of the American Planning Association and is part of its Diversity and Equity Subcommittee.

        


    CLIFTON WILLIAMS

    Director; Chair - Oral History Committee

    Land Use Analyst, Latham & Watkins LLP

    Clif is a Land Use Analyst in the San Diego office of the international law firm Latham & Watkins LLP. Clif works with real estate developers, investors and energy clients on complex government entitlement and regulatory matters and with governmental entities throughout the western United States. Prior to joining Latham, Clif served as Chief of Staff to the San Diego City Council President, and served as the Committee Consultant to the San Diego City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee and the Natural Resources Committee. Clif has also run political campaigns for state and local candidates and ballot propositions.

        


    FRANCESCA REDETZKE

    Director; Chair - Student Engagement & Internships

    Designer, obrArchitecture

    Francesca is a designer at obrArchitecture in North Park and a lecturer at SDSU, Interior Architecture department. She is interested in sustainable design in an urban context. She is a LEED Green Associate and her previous work includes a placemaking project on the Lemon Grove Promenade, a proposal to activate the Palisades in Balboa Park, and design collaboration with Public Architecture for the Binational Friendship Park.


    Knowledge to Action Networks

    C-3's Knowledge Action Networks (KANs) bring together local thought leaders from planning, design, policy, academia, community development, and more to discuss our region’s distinctive and pressing land use challenges.

    LEARN MORE 







    Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 (C-3) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to education and advocacy on issues of policy, planning, and design throughout the San Diego region. Federal Tax ID: 95-2593199

    BYLAWS

    info@c3sandiego.org

    1041 Market St, #156

    San Diego, CA 92101

            

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