Oceanside Director of Redevelopment Moving to Riverside

Margueretta Gulati, the Oceanside redevelopment director who helped nurture the city’s budding urban renewal effort despite sometimes-formidable obstacles, announced Monday that she has resigned to take a similar post in Riverside.

Council members expressed sorrow over the departure of Gulati, who will begin work in Riverside by early March.

“She has done one heck of a good job,” said Councilwoman Lucy Chavez, a staunch redevelopment supporter. “I really feel that it’s a great loss for the City of Oceanside. Maggie brought professionalism and results.”

During her six-year tenure in the $54,000-a-year post, Gulati took a redevelopment program that critics said was dead and helped steer it to a solid list of victories.

Among the accomplishments was a deal Gulati hammered out with federal officials to provide funding for the $4.5-million relocation of the city’s downtown railroad switching yard to a site on Camp Pendleton. The relocation project, which the city had been pursuing for a decade, removes a major eyesore from downtown.

Gulati also was instrumental in negotiating a $50-million waterfront condominium project that will bring 300 new families to the downtown area, which had become run down over the years. In addition, she played a key role in laying the groundwork for the city’s planned $20-million civic center and the replacement of Sterling Homes, a dilapidated Marine Corps housing area in the city, with new commercial and residential development.

Some city officials speculated that Gulati decided to move on to Riverside, a city of 183,000 that is the focal point of the so-called Inland Empire, because she grew tired of criticism from community business leaders, many of whom were eager to see the city create a redevelopment corporation similar to that in San Diego. Gulati also was said to have become increasingly troubled because the current council lacks the consensus on redevelopment that past councils have had.

“The uncertainty of what direction the council would go has always been a source of stress for her,” Chavez said. “She’s felt a lot of outside pressure, from the local paper, from people who wanted a” development corporation.

Gulati denied that such problems played any role in her decision, saying the move was made strictly because she saw it as a career advancement.

“This was just an excellent career opportunity,” she said about the new post, which will pay $69,000 a year. “I’m leaving for a larger community. I’ll have a job with more responsibility. It was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.”

City leaders praised Gulati for her work.

“I think she has been a real asset,” Mayor Larry Bagley said. “All things considered, I would rather she would stay here.”