BIG PLANS IN PLAY AT PARK
State grants to fund $5M in upgrades to equipment, accessibility, other amenities at Eucalyptus Park
When resident Tanya Castaneda saw that the swings had been removed from her children’s favorite and only neighborhood park in Chula Vista, she knew she had to say something.
“It made me sad to see orange cones marking the holes where the slide was removed and parts of the structures boarded up with plywood,” she said.
Eucalyptus Park has been a sad sight for many years. It is one of 56 parks Chula Vista owns and manages, and is on a list of green spaces with playgrounds and structures in need of repair or replacement, according to the city’s Parks and Recreation department.
Though Eucalyptus saw some repairs over the past year, the city is now planning to give it a $5 million face-lift designed to make it more welcoming and improve the pedestrian connection between its lower and upper sections.
Chula Vista received $7.1 million in state grants to improve the park; $1.9 million is for the design and $5.95 million is for construction, according to the city. The city also plans to use some of the money to transform a former YMCA building into an art gallery.
City officials recently heard during a community workshop from more than two dozen residents who shared how they thought the city should upgrade the 20-acre park.
Eucalyptus, located on C Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues, first opened in 1926 as the city’s second park. It is one of the oldest and one of the few green spaces in the municipality’s northwest area.
For many years, the park offered Castaneda’s children a place to roam free and escape their condominium that had “no direct ac
ery week,” Harrington said, noting that those who don’t use the app are also welcome to play.
She said players often have to wait a long time to play pickleball due to its popularity and lack of more courts.
Ten other members of the public offered additional support, including Mark Schilling, who said: “There’s clearly a need for more courts so that people don’t feel like they have to wait forever to get their turn to play . ... Sometimes it’s so crowded that people go somewhere else.”
Julia Zheng, a sixthgrader at The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, said she also likes to play pickleball and is hoping for more courts.
Pickleball player Ann Dynes said “the use of the basketball courts in the morning is almost nonexistent, but is very heavy by the kids, especially, in the afternoons and on the weekends.”
Dulgeroff said it’s “very clear that there could be a lot of tension created by groups” and that there isn’t enough Recreation Center staff to enforce rules or deal with conflict.
“There’s definitely bullying and tension that’s occurring
already,” Dulgeroff said. “I’ve witnessed it myself.”
He expressed concern that the failed motion from December reappeared a month later. “I think ... after the board has considered something, put forth a motion, the issue dies there for the foreseeable future.”
People who oppose the new lines and didn’t know the proposal would be discussed again weren’t able to give their opinions this time, Dulgeroff said.
Wiggins said a “widely circulated email” including Community Recreation Group board members and members of the public discussed the lines and potential priority rules and said the email discussion might violate the Brown Act, the state’s open-meetings law.
The issue “was vetted offline with a quorum,” Dulgeroff added. “So I think the board needs to step back and look at this from a procedural and ethical issue before they decide to proceed.”
Wiggins agreed that the center “doesn’t have the staff to enforce rules. And the kids that are here in La Jolla, this is the only place they have to go. (They) are only in school 180 days a year, so that means there’s 185 days they’re not at school” and need someplace to play.
Wiggins added that home-schooled kids use the courts for PE on weekday mornings.
Community Recreation Group Chairwoman Mary Coakley Munk said “every other community is able to manage figuring out how to make this work. I agree that
the Rec Center is for children, but it’s also for all ages. And the elderly people ... need to have the opportunity to use the facility to exercise just as well.”
She added that pickleball players would pay for the new lines being placed.
Board member Jan Harris said there isn’t unlimited space at the center and “I don’t see how we can justify not striping these courts for pickleball when they sit unused many hours of the week.”
A motion to approve lines for two pickleball courts on the west basketball court and create rules and signage for their use passed 4-3, with Dulgeroff, Wiggins and board member Karen Wiggins opposed. Munk abstained, as is customary for the chair.
Anna Sonnenburg, district manager for the San Diego Parks & Recreation Department, said she will discuss the Community Recreation Group meeting with the department team.
“We then move forward to make sure this is a good decision for us as a whole in the community,” she said. “Once we do that, we will discuss with you the ways of how donations work and moving forward.”
Sonnenburg was unable to clarify a timeline or who would be involved in the decision-making.
The La Jolla Community Recreation Group next meets at 5 p.m. on Feb. 22, likely online. To learn more, call (858) 552-1658.