A tough housing market may complicate, but probably won't stop, a long-awaited, $15 million sports park proposed for north Vista – even if the city has to pay $3.5 million more to build it.
The Vista Sports Park is planned as 16 acres of ballfields and playgrounds next to wetlands and linked by trails to Guajome Regional Park near the Oceanside border.
The park is heralded as the first the city will have built since 1997 and a move toward providing more than 8,000 children with a place to play baseball and soccer.
Vista parks and recreation officials and local youth coaches have said there is a shortage of parks in the city.
Construction of the park is linked to a 159-home subdivision that Concordia Homes has planned for next door. The home builder has agreed to build an access road to the park. In return, the city would remove from the development nearly 300,000 cubic yards of dirt, which would be used in building the park.
The city wants to start what is expected to be a six-month project to build the park in September, but the developer may be waiting until the housing market improves before breaking ground.
“They (Concordia) are kind of watching the market to see which way it goes,” said Aly Zimmermann, assistant to the city manager.
Zimmermann said the city is hoping the Concordia project goes forward because “financially, it is in our best interests to move when Concordia moves forward.”
“It complicates things, absolutely,” City Manager Rita Geldert said of the turn in the economic landscape that Concordia is facing. “We are working through this.”
In a worst-case scenario, it would cost the city about $3.5 million to build the access road and haul in enough fill dirt to build the park.
Robin Putnam, Vista director of community projects, said groundbreaking for the park will begin by January, even if the city has to divert the $3.5 million from something else.
“We have promised the community that we will deliver these projects, and we will,” said Putnam, “Even if it means shifting priorities to get the park project under way.”
The city staff hopes to brief the council in August on Concordia's plans.
Calls to the company's San Diego office were not answered, and messages were not returned.
In November 2006, the City Council approved the Concordia subdivision to be named Adobe Estates.
Zimmermann said the city hired a design team for the park last summer and is negotiating with construction firms to build it.
Vista voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase in 2006 to pay for construction of the sports park, along with a civic center, two fire stations and a new stage house for the Moonlight Amphitheatre.
Rick Rogers: (760) 476-8212; rick.rogers@uniontrib.com
