PLANS FOR INDOOR ARENA APPROVED

Volunteers request closer look at finances, parking for project at El Corazon Park

Plans to build an indoor sports and entertainment arena with nearly 8,000 seats at Oceanside’s sprawling El Corazon Park got a thumbs-up from a key oversight committee last week.

The El Corazon Standing Committee agreed unanimously to forward plans for the 171,291-square-foot Arena Calfino, possibly the future home of the San Diego Sockers professional soccer team, to the city’s Planning Commission for approval.

The multi-purpose building would have room to seat up to 6,367 people for sporting events and as many as 7,992 seats for concerts. The arena would be on a 5.24-acre parcel, with 618 parking spaces on an separate 7.2-acre parcel.

“This is a very exciting project for the city of Oceanside,” said Richard Greenbauer, the city’s principal planner.

The arena will be designed with the Irving Gill-inspired stucco-and-archstyle architecture used for buildings elsewhere in the 450-plus-acre park and other places in the city such as the Oceanside Civic Center. The building will be oriented facing west to take advantage of the prevailing onshore winds, Greenbauer said.

Located near the El Corazon Senior Center, the unfinished aquatics center and the temporary Socal Sports soccer field complex, the arena will be accessed from yet-to-be-built roads coming from Rancho Del Oro Drive.

Two members of the Friends of El Corazon, a nonprofit created in 2012 to

oversee the park’s development, called into the committee’s zoom meeting to voice concerns.

“Friends of El Corazon supports the proposed arena,” said Joan Bockman, president of the Friends. “We welcome the Sockers. However, there are major changes from the original financing and uses in the (El Corazon Park) specific plan. The arena needs to proceed in a way that supports the overall vision for El Corazon and the financial plan that makes the park viable.”

The city needs to to guarantee that proceeds from ventures like the sports arena and other commercial activities in the park will be used only for the development and maintenance of the park and not to pay other city operational costs, she said.

“We are concerned that no one is truly held responsible for the overall park development,” Bockman said. “The financing plan is not updated to reflect the long-term needs.”

Friends members also have raised concerns about the arena parking, which would be shared with the nearby Socal Sports complex, which is a temporary facility, and about the City Council’s ongoing closed-session negotiations with the developer planning a mixedused project for the park and the possible sale of El Corazon property to the developer.

“On the big picture issues issues that the city is responsible for we have a long way to go,” said Diane Nygaard, a community activist and member of the Friends. “Dedicated parkland ... and establishing the policy that revenue generated on El Corazon stays on El Corazon ... are critical to the vision for a park in the heart of Oceanside.”

Jonathan Borrego, deputy city manager and development services director, said the standing committee’s recommendation includes an understanding there needs to be adequate parking and that revenue generated by uses within the park will be used to pay for future maintenance and improvements within the park.

No date has been set for the arena project to be presented to the Planning Commission.