Escondido to Make Long-Range Plans for Parks

Escondido hopes to turn the tide on dwindling urban park space and create from scratch an extensive web of trails--but it’s a goal that will come at a price.

Proposals from three consultants were received by Escondido this week as the city prepares to develop a parks and trails master plan to last the next 20 years.

The plan will include the location, number and size of the parks and map out a maze of rural and urban trails, associate city planner Jay Petrek said.

The cost: more than $50 million, including the purchase and development of the land for the parks and trails, Petrek said. The consultant report, including an environmental impact report, will take nine months to a year and cost more than $150,000, he said.

“It would basically be a long-range plan to implement the city’s parks, trails and open-space system,” Petrek said.

The aim is to maintain a ratio of 2.78 acres of neighborhood parks per 1,000 residents--the status quo last June when the city’s new general plan was adopted.

Petrek said no statistics have been kept on what the ratio of park space to population has been in the past, but the previous general plan, which was written in 1973, called for 6.6 acres of parks per 1,000 residents.

Petrek downplayed that figure, saying that plan was “overly ambitious” and was unclear on whether the definition of “park” included wilderness.

Escondido now has 268.8 acres of parklands, but 29% of that has yet to be developed. The new general plan calls for the acquisition and development of 189.9 additional acres to accommodate a projected population of 165,000, Petrek said.

Escondido also has 1,655 acres of developed wilderness land, including 1,050 acres around Lake Wohlford and 505 acres in the Lake Dixon area, bringing a ratio of 12.8 acres of parks and open space per 1,000 residents by the time the master parks plan is fully developed.

(The National Recreation and Park Assn. recommends 10 acres of recreation space, including parks and wilderness, per 1,000 residents.)

Escondido also hopes to develop an elaborate trail system that would link trails from San Marcos in the west, Valley Center in the north, the San Dieguito River Valley in the south and county trails in the east, Petrek said.

“It will be fairly extensive,” he said. “Linking to those trails would be several community trails which branch out to the urbanized areas as well as link trails directly to the south.”

Petrek could not say how long the system will be, and only that it will be “a several million-dollar venture.” The city has no trail system now.

Petrek said some of the trails and parks may be provided by builders in lieu of development fees to the city and may include equestrian trails as well as paths for bicyclists and pedestrians.

“It’s not something that will be on the ground in two years, but I’m sure that there will be portions of it down by then,” he said.

Parks are expensive, though--about $275,000 an acre to buy the land and build, Petrek said.

“Building them isn’t the end of the cost, either,” said Dale Mathre, Escondido parks and open space superintendent. He said $2 million a year is spent maintaining the parks the city now has.

But it’s worth it, he said.

“A lot of people really look at parks as an essential service. They may not put it on the same level as police and fire, but it certainly is part of their lifestyle,” Mathre said.

Petrek said the committee drawing up the general plan cited an “urgent need” for more parks in the downtown area.

“They are viewed as respites, to get away from the built-up environment,” Petrek said.

Researchers of parks and recreation agree.

“Parks simply being available, whether people use them or not, are an escape valve to escape urban and everyday stress,” said Seppo Iso-Ahola, professor and chairman of the department of recreation at the University of Maryland.

“Psychologically, you would know that if it really gets hectic, you could go there, and simple awareness of that is very important,” Iso-Ahola said.

Barry Trindall of the National Recreation and Park Assn. noted that cemeteries were used as open space before the time of organized park construction.

“Certain kinds of cemeteries have fantastic open-space values,” Trindall said. “It’s not, however, where you put the softball fields.”