1. Paige Patterson
Reaction Paper 1
Case 6-2
This case is about the building of the New UTC, a $1 billion expansion of the UTC shopping
center in San Diego. Southwest Strategies was hired by Westfield Corporation to develop a
community relations program that would advocate the public and build support.
I believe that this case was necessary because if you are building something this expensive and
this big in a community, you are going to want the community’s support. Especially if they are
the people who will essentially be shopping there and using this new center. They set attainable
objectives such as identifying 2,000 support cards from San Diegans, and putting to rest all
concerns that the community had about this project.
They worked for almost 5 years trying to gain community support and support from local
organizations and they more than exceeded their goal. There are a lot of principles being used in
this case. The first one is using a third party to gain support. Using a third party source is
beneficial because it increases credibility. You are more likely to believe someone if they do not
work for the cause that they are promoting. It also increases the amount of people that support
your cause.
Another principle is that communication is the key to success and building rapport. This entire
campaign is based upon communicating effectively with the community and gaining their trust
and support. SWS wanted to be completely transparent upon the beginning of this campaign, and
they essentially did so by the end.
Attaching an organizations name to a cause tends to increase the warm fuzzy feelings. During
this campaign, many organizations supported the New UTC such as the San Diego Housing

2. Commission, the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, and the American Lung Association.
Organizations like these do not usually get involved in development proposals but because they
did, it connected emotions to the campaign and caused people to feel a connection to it in some
way.
It’s easier to get publics to do something for an organization when they like it. The community
was concerned with the increase in traffic in their neighborhood due to this expansion, and they
were also concerned with the environmental effects that it would have. In 2007, the launch
focused on the “green” elements of the project. The Metropolitan Transportation System and the
San Diego Association of Governments partnered with this project because Westfield agreed to
provide nearly two acres of the shopping center to accommodate a state-of-the-art $22 million
transit center. This helped ease nerves about the increase in traffic. The use of solar power and
water conservation also gained the support of people who were concerned with the environment.
The campaign also included written letters and emails to City Council members asking for
support of the project. In the end, the City Council voted 7-1 in support for the project. This
project was the largest land development projects ever supported in San Diego’s history and
exceeded all of the objectives that were set in the beginning.
Many principles were visible in this case, which is why I think that it was so successful. This
campaign set a precedent for all future land development projects. Westfield and SWS produced
a very successful community relations campaign, in my opinion. I think that everything they did
and all the principles they used were necessary for a successful campaign. They were transparent
and cared about what the community thought about this project. They also carefully planned out
each step of their campaign and it definitely paid off.