The National City Planning Commission did not set out to appoint the youngest person to ever serve as its chair, but in December when its members appointed Marcus Bush, a 26-yearold South Bay native, they did just that.
Bush was preceded as chair by Althea Pruitt. Before Bush the youngest to serve in the position was Maria De La Paz who was 28 years old when she was appointed chair of the commission in 2008.
The commission reviews development proposals and makes recommendations to National City City Council, informing the council’s decision to approve or not approve a given development project. As chair of the commission, Bush presides over meetings and his voice has a measure of added influence with his fellow commissioners.
“I was just really honored by the appointment,” Bush said, sitting with a laptop in the Starbucks on Mile of Cars Way in National City. “I’ve only been there since 2013, but I think that my colleagues saw that I was knowledgeable about urban planning and, despite my age, they still had the confidence to vote me in.”
The proposal for that particular Starbucks recently went through the Planning Commission’s approval process, Bush said, and it was clear the successful completion of the project is a point of pride for Bush.
“Planning commissions by their nature are more reactionary. They react to proposals that are coming in,” Bush said. “I would like to see us be more proactive in attracting the kind of development that we want to see. And one of the things we’d like to see is a revitalization of downtown.”
Bush envisions a downtown National City with more housing, entertainment and even breweries. To attract those kinds of developers, Bush said the first step is improving the parking downtown, so working on parking management is high on Bush’s agenda in 2015.
“We get overlooked by developers around the country because they see that National City has high crime rates, high poverty rates, high obesity rates. They see the statistics and overlook us,” Bush said.
“So that’s the biggest challenge — getting over that perception and shedding that stereotype.”
Bush, a Sweetwater High alumnus, graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s in planning and a passion for National City.
But he is more than just a 26-year-old planning commissioner. He is also a 26-year-old father of two who works full time with Mooney Planning Collaborative, a private planning firm, and he is a homeowner in National City.
Graduate school and possibly a career in government may be in Bush’s future, but for the time being he said he is focusing on his appointment, his job and his family.
“I love serving on the Planning Commission. You know, I get to work in government without the political aspects of it,” Marcus said. “Urban planning is what I’m passionate about, so for right now the Planning Commission is where I love to be.”
