Agreement for Olympic Training Facility Approved

Paving the way for a timely completion of the first phase of the new U. S. Olympic team training facility near the Lower Otay Reservoir, the Chula Vista City Council has approved an agreement to allow the city to quickly approve construction plans for the 150-acre site.

The council approved a “statement of intention” by a 3-0 vote, with Mayor Greg Cox and Councilman David Malcolm absent. The Tuesday action instructs EastLake Development to donate the tract, which is just east of Chula Vista, for the center. The first phase is to include housing for 300, a 55,000-square-foot gymnasium, 50-meter swimming pool, 400-meter running track, sports medicine and administration offices, and outdoor training facilities for cycling, rowing, archery and tennis.

When completed, the center is expected to house as many as 1,000 U. S. Olympic hopefuls, and will be the only U. S. warm-weather Olympic training site. The first phase is scheduled to be completed by mid-1991.

Other U.S. Olympic training centers are in Colorado Springs; Lake Placid, N.Y., and Marquette, Mich.

“We’re certainly going to give them high priority when it comes time to approving their plans,” said Chula Vista City Manager John Goss. “We’ve indicated certain time slots for processing their (EastLake’s) requests,” he said, adding that the agreement is non-binding on the city and doesn’t guarantee the city’s approval of EastLake’s other plans near the area where the training facility will be built. EastLake is a planned community in Chula Vista.

Katy Wright, manager of community development for EastLake, said the good-faith agreement came just in time to beat a Feb. 12 deadline for EastLake to inform the San Diego National Sports Training Foundation that there will be no snags in approving plans for the sports facility.

“We needed to provide the foundation with an indication that the city was able to accomplish this goal in a timely fashion,” Wright said. The foundation, charged by the U. S. Olympic Committee to raise private donations and locate the site, received Tuesday’s action favorably.

“It’s a very significant commitment on the part of Chula Vista,” said Dave Nielsen, executive director of the foundation. “We knew they could provide it,” he said, adding that the next step in the process will be to prepare permits for construction and the annexation of the 150-acre tract. The annexation is expected in the next six months to a year.