CITY SEEKS $8.5M GRANT FOR EL CORAZON PARK

Pickleball courts, sports fields, trails, among plans for site

Oceanside is preparing an application for up to $8.5 million in state grant money to pay for the construction of pickleball and basketball courts, sports fields, dog parks, trails, restrooms and more on about 36 acres of the city’s sprawling El Corazon Park.

“We are going to be in the running for this one,” said Omar Hernandez, a consultant helping to prepare the city’s application. “The wonderful thing is this does not require a match from the city.”

The money sought for “Park Site 1” is available in Round 4 of Proposition 68, passed by California voters on June 5, 2018, which will provide nearly $400 million for qualifying projects statewide. Part of the application process is collecting residents’ suggestions and opinions on how the money should be spent, Hernandez said at a recent meeting of the Oceanside Parks and Recreation Commission.

The El Corazon property is 465 acres of a former open-pit sand mine that the city acquired in 1994, north of Oceanside Boulevard and east of El Camino Real. Since then the city has been slowly cleaning up the land and turning it into a park, along with a senior center, a soon-to-open aquatics center, and other uses including some homes and commercial activities to generate revenue and help pay for the park.

El Corazon also includes the Socal Sports Complex, a grid of 21 athletic fields on 52.5 acres that hosts events such as soccer tournaments for teams from throughout the Southwest.

One of the next additions will be the development of what’s called Park Site 1, a vacant area in the eastern portion of El Corazon north of the senior center, the aquatics center

and a proposed indoor sports arena.

El Corazon has a total of nine park sites spread out across the property, according to the park’s overall specific plan. Five of the sites were combined to make the Socal Sports Complex, which is a temporary use on a long-term lease. None of the other sites have been developed so far.

Hernandez, of the Los Angeles-based firm Global Urban Strategies, is working on a preliminary layout for Site 1 to submit as part of the application for the state grant.

The list of proposed recreational facilities is based on suggestions made at three public meetings in January and a survey disseminated through the city’s website and media platforms.

Minor, but not major changes can be made to the layout after it’s accepted for the grant, he said. He also will include renderings of the proposed facilities and a video with the submission.

Still, now is the best time to tweak the application, and a high level of community involvement throughout the process improves the chances of success, Hernandez said.

The $8.5 million is the maximum allowed for a single application under Proposition 68. As proposed, it includes $3.5 million for recreational facilities such as sports fields and playground equipment, $2.2 million for amenities such as restrooms and storage areas, and the rest of the money for contingencies such as design, engineering and administration, he said.

Asked by one of the commissioners whether there could be more restrooms, Hernandez said probably not. The least expensive prefabricated restroom building costs about $500,000 and a full-sized building is about $1 million. However, the locations of the restrooms could be changed.

Commission Chair Kelyn Hsu asked why the preliminary design map shows five bike repair stations along the bike trails, which may seem excessive.

The bike stations were proposed as places where cyclists could repair a tire or just stop for a short time, Hernandez said. The cost for each one is about $2,000 and some of them could easily be removed from the plan.

Hsu also asked for information about the placement of shade structures and trees.

“Time and time again with Oceanside parks we have a problem with shade,” she said. She asked for the plan to include more shaded areas, especially places such as picnic tables and children’s play areas.

Several people asked for the park to include more than just the four pickleball courts included in the plan. Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country, and four courts will fit in the space used by a tennis court.

“People are flooding the parks that have them,” said Lauren Godinet, a resident and player who called into the meeting on Zoom.

“It would be a great revenue stream for the city,” she said, adding that pickleball is “a lot more popular than people realize.”

Another caller, Diane Nygaard, said the city appears to be rushing the application and urged staffers to take time to include more large, open grassy areas for flexible uses such as community events, craft fairs and other activities.

“We all know how hard it is to come up with park funding,” Nygaard said. “This really needs to be the very best we can make it.”

The Oceanside City Council is expected to approve the application at its meeting Wednesday, and the funded projects will be announced late this year or early next year, Hernandez said.