OCEANSIDE: El Corazon park plan approved

Layout includes athletic fields, hotels, other amenities
By CRAIG TENBROECK – ctenbroeck@nctimes.com | Wednesday, June 3, 2009 11:28 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE —- In what was hailed as a moment for celebration, the Oceanside City Council on Wednesday signed off on a development blueprint for El Corazon, a former sand mine envisioned as a giant park.

Roughly 80 people, including youth soccer players, applauded the unanimous vote.

“I think this whole community is glowing tonight,” said Diane Nygaard, a member of a citizens committee that drafted the document known as a specific plan.

Given to the city in 1994, the 465-acre El Corazon property is bordered by Oceanside Boulevard, El Camino Real, Mesa Drive and Rancho del Oro Drive.

The specific plan spells out development guidelines and design concepts for the site. It reserves 212 acres for athletic fields and recreational uses, 34 acres for civic buildings and 164 acres for natural habitat. A long list of amenities includes hiking trails, an aquatic center and a tree-lined promenade.

Tyrone Matthews, chairman of the committee, described the future park as “a refuge from the day-to-day existence that we all have.”

Space along the eastern and southern edges will be reserved for projects including two hotels, an office-retail complex and a village combining small shops and 300 residential units.

David Kerton, vice president of the Soccer Club of Oceanside, promised the athletic fields would see plenty of use. He said Oceanside could host money-making tournaments such as ones held in Bakersfield and Palmdale.

“No disrespect to those two cities, but I think we all know where we’d prefer to play soccer,” Kerton said. “Here in Oceanside.”

The first piece of El Corazon, a senior center, will open Saturday. But the rest could take years, even decades. The price tag for all the proposals, according to one estimate, is $172.4 million.

“The funding is going to be very difficult,” Councilman Rocky Chavez said.

The council hasn’t decided whether it will bring in a master developer, serve in that capacity itself or form a development partnership. It voted Wednesday to start looking for qualified developers and tenants.

For now, the property is home to a mine-tailings pond and a green-waste facility.

Read the specific plan at www.elcorazon.ci.oceanside.ca.us.

Contact staff writer Craig TenBroeck at 760-901-4062.