Ecke parkland requirement debate blossoms

By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer | Saturday, July 23, 2005 10:57 PM PDT ∞

ENCINITAS ---- The 38-acre land-use plan for Paul Ecke Ranch headed to voters on Nov. 8 offers 8 acres for a park that a former commissioner wants to open before any of 101 planned homes are built.

"I want to see up front that we have some sort of agreement to get that park built," said Russell Levan, who had been a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission in the 1990s. "That way, we'd see the community benefit."

The Encinitas City Council last week approved language for a ballot measure in which voters will decide whether the council should rezone 38 acres of Paul Ecke Ranch from agricultural to residential property.

Ranch officials say they would subdivide and sell that property to finance modernization of the flower farm on Saxony Road. Without new facilities, they say, competition within the flower growing industry will drive the historical farm out of Encinitas.

After the public vote ---- which Paul Ecke Ranch is paying for and which is considered "advisory" ---- at least four of the five council members must approve the zoning change.

That approval requires the council to show that the change would provide "significant public benefits," such as land for parks.

The community would not realize such a benefit, however, if the park itself takes years to build, Levan said. He added that donations of parkland don't always turn into parks.

Negotiating for parks

City officials in 2000 acquired 3 acres for a park when Standard Pacific Homes sought approval of a 49-home subdivision in Leucadia.

The 30-acre subdivision is long since finished ---- some of the homes are 5,000 square feet with four-car garages ---- but the park property at Olympus and Piraeus streets is fenced and posted with "no trespassing" signs.

"Most of the time we have negotiated land for parks, those are undeveloped pieces for parks in the future," Councilwoman Christy Guerin said last week.

Guerin served on the subcommittee that secured park property from a developer.

The city alone is responsible for building a park on Olympus Street, she said, but when that will happen is anybody's guess. The city's capital improvement plan makes no mention of the site.

"I'm frustrated that we haven't moved to do that," Guerin said of the undelivered park.

If the weed-choked site on Olympus is a source of frustration, a 3-year-old park next to another subdivision illustrates fruitful negotiations.

In 2002, talks with developer Graystone Homes produced the 2.5-acre Leucadia Oaks Park.

The park on Vulcan Avenue and Sanford Street remains the city's first and only neighborhood park north of Leucadia Boulevard and west of Interstate 5.

The park opened as crews put the finishing touches on Graystone's 46-home subdivision.

The developer had deeded 1.5 acres of its property to the city for Leucadia Oaks Park. Encinitas bought an additional acre and paid construction costs, bringing the city's bill for Leucadia Oaks Park to $1.5 million.

Guerin noted that for the developer, the brand-new park made the houses easier to sell.

Park should be 'a priority'

Guerin said that in addition to setting aside land for a park, the Ecke Ranch would be required to pay the park fees that all developers must pay.

She said she did not know whether a park could open at the proposed development before housing construction begins, but that it would be reasonable to try.

"I don't know if, in the scheme of things, it's going to be completely possible," Guerin said. "That's something the council's going to have to set as a priority."

If voters and the City Council approve the land-use proposal, Ecke ranch would give the city its parkland before a project begins, the ranch's chairman, Chris Calkins, said last week.

Building the park would be subject to negotiation, but Calkins said the park fees Ecke ranch must pay would make "a significant dent" in the cost of park construction.

Earlier this month, Calkins and ranch owner Paul Ecke III objected to the city planners' recommendation to set aside 8 acres as the required donation of park property to the city. Ranch officials had proposed 3 acres.

He had said the larger donation could reduce profits to the point that the ranch could not accomplish the modernization it needs.

Last week, Calkins said the project would remain economically viable depending "on the extent to which further obligations are placed upon us."

"It is worse than we expected," Ecke said after the council's meeting, "but we still think we can do it."

Ecke expressed his goals in four words: "Rebuild, modernize, compete and survive."

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.