Arts Center Survey Raises Council Fears : Entertainment: Escondido councilwoman questions support for performing arts center and the manner in which survey of community was conducted.

A new survey of North County’s interest in Escondido’s proposed Center for the Arts has at least one City Council member fearing that the financial future of the center is bleak, and that little community support exists for the project.

Council members have already expressed concern over the center’s estimated $1.4-million annual operating cost, with one saying it might be “an economic disaster for the city.”

Councilwoman Carla DeDominicis questioned the demographics of the survey used to determine the community’s interest in an arts center.

“They talked to people who are wealthier, more educated, younger and more single than the average Escondidan, and out of those people, only 8.4% indicated that they have an interest in arts,” DeDominicis said, referring to the question “In what two recreational activities do you participate most frequently?”

She said the people polled did not represent an accurate cross-section of North County residents. DeDominicis believes a more accurate survey would show even less support for the arts center.

The city hired ArtSoft Management Services to the compile the report, which, besides the survey also includes estimates for the $73.4-million center’s operating costs and potential income, maps out the center’s organizational design and conducted research on potential users of the center.

ArtSoft hired Seattle-based Hebert Research to conduct the survey to determine the level of community interest in a center. The survey consisted of interviews with 404 heads of households in the areas north of La Jolla and Point Loma to the southern part of Riverside County, including Temecula.

The survey found that 84% of the people had education beyond high school, 56% of the households had annual incomes above $40,000, and 60% of respondents were under the age of 44. Also, 60% of the respondents had moved to the area in the last four years.

Figures provided by the San Diego Assn. of Governments put the 1988 mean household income in that area at $32,541. Also, census figures from 1980 showed that only 42% of people older than 18 in that area had education beyond high school.

Bryan Johnson of Hebert Research said the people were “polled basically randomly” and conceded that the figure showing 84% of respondents with education beyond high school “does seem high.”

DeDominicis said she was “not comfortable with their figures” and has asked for the locations of the people surveyed.

The lack of community interest has City Councilman Sid Hollins concerned that it is only a small part of Escondido that wants the center. Hollins cites poor attendance at a community workshop on the center held last November.

“I don’t know whether that tells me that they think it’s a done deal or whether they simply don’t care or whether they simply weren’t made aware of the meeting,” Hollins said.

The report also estimates annual operating expenses for the project would be $3.5 million, a figure DeDominicis said was “overly optimistic” when compared to similar projects in California.

Given the cost of the project and current economic conditions, Hollins and DeDominicis both support a plan that would have the center, to be located next to City Hall, built in phases.

But Mayor Jerry Harmon said that, although there are “a half a dozen or so points that I looked at closely . . . I have not seen anything that has changed my mind as far as going ahead with the proposal as planned.”

The current schedule calls for bids on the project to go out in early February and return by the end of March. The project, scheduled to be completed in the fall of 1993, includes a 1,500-seat lyric theater, a 400-seat community theater, an 800-person-capacity conference center and a visual arts center with a gallery, library and workshop space.

The board of trustees for the center plans to meet Wednesday with ArtSoft representatives.