Community Call to Action

San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) will host its last community engagement session about redevelopment of the 13-acre Brucker site at 4100 Normal Street on Monday, April 28, at 6:30 pm in the Birney Elementary School Auditorium, 4345 Campus Avenue.

Things are moving quickly for the Brucker site's redevelopment, also referred to as the Normal Street site and the Education Center site. SDUSD issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to developers on April 1. Proposals are due to SDUSD on August 26, 2025, and the Board of Education will decide which proposal (s) to accept in December 2025.

SDUSD has invited interested developers to attend the community engagement session on April 28 to hear what community members want for the Brucker site. This is our community’s only opportunity to let developers know what we want for the Brucker site before proposals are submitted to SDUSD on August 26 and the Board of Education makes a decision in December.

Please attend the community engagement session on April 28 and support the consensus site plan created by the district’s architect, AVRP Studios, after 7 years of collaboration with SDUSD and input from hundreds of University Heights residents. Community engagement included:

4 community workshops hosted by SDUSD;
9 task force meetings hosted by SDUSD with members of the Community Coalition of University Heights including the UH Community Association, UH Historical Society, and UH Community Development Corporation;
5 community presentations at UHCA meetings;
25 articles and op-eds published in the UHCA monthly newspaper;
2 community-wide surveys;
8 site plans created by students at the New School of Architecture
1 site plan created by an architect hired by the University Heights Historical Society

Consensus Site Plan for Redevelopment of Brucker Site

The AVRP Site Plan conforms to zoning and the Uptown Community Plan, and fulfills the goals of SDUSD, employee unions, and the community and includes the following:

500 affordable housing units restricted to SDUSD teachers and staff
Maximum 5-7 stories along Normal Street and 4 stories along Campus Avenue
Preservation and rehabilitation of Annexes 1 & 2
Adequate onsite parking
East-west and north-south pedestrian circulation
Public open space in central area
Outdoor plaza in front of Annex 1
Amphitheatre behind Annex 1
Dog park
Preservation of the two large heritage trees in front of Annex 3 & corner of Campus/Normal

Request for Proposals Issued by District on April 1

SDUSD issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to developers on April 1 for redevelopment of the site. Proposals are due to SDUSD on August 26, 2025, and the Board of Education will decide which proposal (s) to accept in December 2025.

The RFP for the Brucker site includes the following features from the AVRP site plan:

Truly affordable workforce housing
Conformance with local zoning and community plans (maximum 500 units)
Adequate onsite parking
Preservation and rehabilitation of Annexes 1 and 2

The RFP for the Brucker site does not include the following features from the AVRP site plan:

Public open space in the central area
East-west and north-south pedestrian circulation
An outdoor plaza in front of Annex 1
An amphitheater behind Annex 1
Dog park
Preservation of the two large heritage trees in front of Annex 3 and at the corner of Campus Avenue and Normal Street