Leo Carrillo park to see more construction work

By: BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | Wednesday, May 30, 2007 12:25 AM PDT ∞

CARLSBAD -- With work to control erosion nearly complete at Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park, a barn restoration effort at the site is about to go out for bid, and there's also talk of installing a special events patio near the pool.

Once home to the late actor Leo Carrillo, the 27-acre park sits in a valley just west of Melrose Drive near the city's eastern border. It opened in 2003 in a partially restored state, and it will be years before all the renovation projects are done, city officials say.

The latest financial request -- $267,000 for a flagstone patio, lighting and landscaping, which was aired before City Council last week, is included within a proposed city budget document that's slated to be approved June 26.

The proposed patio area, which will be designed to blend in with the ranch's historic buildings, will allow the city to relocate special events from a grass-covered area near the pool, said Mark Steyaert, the city's park development manager.

"That (lawn area) is getting so much use, it's getting worn out," he said, adding that every weekend until October is booked by wedding groups or for other parties.

Alan Kindle, leader of the nonprofit park boosters' group the Friends of Carrillo Ranch, said he's heard that people already are starting to ask for bookings for next year. But he said he's really not all that interested in the patio project, which he considers to be a city revenue-generating effort.

What he really cares about, he said, is the planned restoration of Carrillo's old barn building. That project, which is slated to begin before the end of the year, is the first phase of an effort to turn the aging barn into a visitors center-theater, Kindle said.

"It's not an amenity, it's a necessity," he added.

Currently, the visitors center is housed in the old gatehouse building and the video-viewing room has space for only six people at a time, he added.

"You walk into that visitors center and you get claustrophobia," he said.

In addition to the typical visitors center videos, the theater will be able to air some of the dozens of movies Carrillo starred in, he said.

Steyaert said the city expects the bidding process on the $500,000 restoration project to begin within the next three months. The plans are awaiting state approval, he added. State approval is necessary because it's providing nearly half the funding for the project, he said.

The six-month project should be done by spring 2008, he said.

That's about the time the city will be crafting its next budget and Kindle said he will be lobbying city leaders at that time to put some money toward the second phase of the project -- the visitors center-theater portion of the work.

For information on the park, visit: http://www.carlsbadca.gov/parks/carrillo/generalparkinfo.html

-- Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.

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