ESCONDIDO: City moving ahead with $21M Citracado connection

Road would ease congestion between I-15, Highway 78

By DAVID GARRICK - Staff Writer | Friday, September 5, 2008 6:11 PM PDT ∞

NCT

ESCONDIDO ---- It's a tale of two Citracados.

City officials say they have made significant progress on plans to spend $21 million connecting two portions of Citracado Parkway, a project that is expected to ease traffic congestion in the industrial area between Highway 78 and Interstate 15.

County planning officials have deemed the future Citracado a "regional arterial," because the road will close a crucial gap in the North County traffic grid when it's complete, said Robb Zaino, Escondido's deputy director of engineering.

City officials recently settled on an alignment for the new half-mile section of roadway, which will close the large gap in Citracado that extends from West Valley Parkway up to Andreasen Drive and Harmony Grove Road, said Barbara Redlitz, the city's assistant planning director.

City officials also have applied to annex 30 acres of county land required for the project, and an environmental analysis is well under way and should be ready early next year, Redlitz said this week.

Despite the progress, Zaino said, construction probably would not begin until 2011 and not conclude until 2012, shortly after a new Palomar Medical Center opens nearby. The hospital district has given the city $15 million toward construction, and the city has set aside $6.6 million.

Residents in Harmony Grove, a rural area of the county that the road will pass through, said this week that they are pleased with the city's plans because they reflect the many compromises hammered out during meetings between city and Harmony Grove officials.

"It wasn't our ideal scenario, but I think they had good reasons for all the compromises," said Mid Hoppenrath, a member of the Elfin Forest/Harmony Grove Town Council. "We're trying to keep the area rural, but we don't want to stand in the way of progress."

While the general pathway of the road was never in doubt because it must connect the existing northern and southern portions of Citracado, it had not been clear how the new road would intersect with Harmony Grove Road and some other streets.

One key compromise was having Harmony Grove Road intersect Citracado at a right angle, said Hoppenrath.

"Some of the earlier plans had a high-speed curve, and something like that is not going to help keep an area rural," she said, noting that Harmony Grove features many large equestrian ranches.

But concerns about firefighting access to some neighborhoods forced city officials to deny requests from residents to limit the number of streets that connect to the new roadway, Hoppenrath said.

Though residents must accept that an industrial park will be built on 17 of the 30 acres the city plans to annex, Hoppenrath said city officials have promised that a special buffer zone will separate the rural neighborhood from the park.

Hoppenrath said the new road also means Harmony Grove residents will deal with fewer commuters "cutting through" the area to save time, because those motorists will use Citracado when it's complete.

"We want to keep them off our rural roads," said Hoppenrath. "They will be able to go through on Citracado, while the rest of us will amble around on our circuitous country roads and be real happy."

Kathy DaSilva, another neighborhood leader, said residents expect the new roadway to slow traffic that passes through the area.

Redlitz, the city planning official, said a key component of the project is building a bridge over Escondido Creek, which is bordered on the south by city land and on the north by county land. It has not been decided how the land around the bridge will be graded, she said.

Andy Hoang, a spokesman for the new Palomar Medical Center, said Friday that hospital officials are pleased to see some progress on Citracado and still hope the new roadway will be ready when the hospital opens.

"It's critical that the city has appropriate access to the new hospital," he said.

Citracado has been on city and county maps since at least the 1970s, but progress has been haphazard due to the high costs of road construction, said Ed Domingue, the city's acting director of public works. There are other gaps in the southern part of Escondido that city officials plan to tackle when money becomes available, he said.

Contact staff writer David Garrick at (760) 740-5468 or dgarrick@nctimes.com.

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Pre-Registration Comments[-]Go to Top

Herbie wrote on Sep 5, 2008 8:16 PM:I live up on Ross Drive, which intersects Vineyard about a block or so to the north of Citracado and Vineyard. I would like any Escondido civic minded personnel who read this to know that it is a blind intersection for us pulling out from Ross Drive as traffic approaches from the south and heads north. The completion of Citracado as explained in the above article will double and treble, immediately, the amount of traffic we have to dodge getting out of our street. When the hospital is finally built, it will double it again from that figure.Solution? Stop sign?

januaryM wrote on Sep 5, 2008 8:26 PM:Was I the only one to read in todays(friday) paper.The notice that the Esco JAYCEES are having their meeting to discuss the Planning the Christmas Parade at Cocina del Charro on Quince next week ?
Amazing....plan a cancelled event.Is this a new hobby?

Just say NO wrote on Sep 5, 2008 8:30 PM:Leave it alone. Enough development in this town! Why not pour concrete over the whole freaking town and be done with it!

Little Andy wrote on Sep 5, 2008 8:31 PM:Blame PPH. It all PPH Fault. Wasted taxpayer $$$. Where's LT. We want LT follow thru on Promises. We want LT

taxpayer wrote on Sep 5, 2008 8:34 PM:psst,Herbie they don't care.They are going to be too busy trying to increase taxes to pay for all the signage connected to the parking ban.
Once again the council has it's hands in your pockets and it wants you to like it!
VOTE NOV 2008 to replace the current free spending councilmen.
Goodbye Abed Gallo

Karl wrote on Sep 5, 2008 10:02 PM:They do care. Instead of complaining on a blog that will accomplish nothing, go to a council meeting and let them know about it. Fill out a slip before the meeting and you will get to speak. If you don't know how to get on the agenda for public comments just ask. Take some neighbors with you and have them speak also (strength in numbers works at council meetings). The council will listen and if you have a valid point you might get something done. Good luck.

Vote for Gallo and Abed

Peace

Floyd wrote on Sep 6, 2008 12:09 AM:The odds are that the privately-funded I-15 expansion to the Pala Casino will be complete before the government gets around to finishing the plans for the Citracado expansion.

Probably a good thing wrote on Sep 6, 2008 12:48 AM:I've never lived in a city or town that had as many disconnected roads as Escondido. Citracado Parkway and Conway Drive are just two of the dozens. I'm glad the city is doing this. And I don't think the are where the new segment of road passes is truly rural, just patches of four or five empty lots strewn among huge warehouses and two-story office buildings. Keep rural areas rural, but fill in empty space with efficient development. This is a textbook case of smart development. Anyone who's worried about runaway development should turn their attention toward Rancho Guejito.

million NOT million wrote on Sep 6, 2008 9:45 AM:In 2006, it was reported: 'The city also expects to receive $13 million from Palomar Pomerado Health to help pay for an expansion of Citracado Parkway from West Valley Parkway to Harmony Grove Road. The money was part of an agreement negotiated earlier this year that will allow the district to build its medical campus in the industrial park under development off Citracado.'
www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/06/08/news/inland/15_03_276_7_06.txt

PPH can claim reimbursement of $5 million of the $13 million if 'Third Source Funding' is collected from other governmental entities, or from developers in the area, if that funding exceeds the cost of contructing the Citracado improvements.

Reporting the PPH gave the City $15 million is just sloppy reporting.

choo choo wrote on Sep 6, 2008 9:49 AM:Would like to know just when the small portion east of Valley Parkway that would link Citracado to Center City Parkway will be done? By not completing that section of road many taxpayers are being made to take a roundabout, possibly life threatening because of the extra time, route to the hospital. What's up with that?

Herbie wrote on Sep 6, 2008 1:26 PM:Ross Drive is in the County of San Diego. The next foot over is the City of Escondido (Vineyard). I guess I could show up for a city meeting, but when I have to recite who I am and my address, I am sure it won't matter any more.

taxpayer wrote on Sep 6, 2008 2:39 PM:To Karl
Sep 5, 2008 10:02 PM
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I've been to City Hall more than once.I also enjoy shaking up those loosers on the council & their lazy staff.
I plan on having more fun this Wednesday Sept.10,2008 7pm
I will be there to protest the wanna be parking ban.
See ya at City Hall for the fun!

CH Staffer wrote on Sep 6, 2008 5:53 PM:To Taxpayer: maybe someday you'll get a job and stop being a "looser".

Try getting an education and you can be like me.

To Karl wrote on Sep 6, 2008 6:43 PM:That is a JOKE. Right?

Oh sure...go to the city council meeting and speak and the council will listen. NOT!!! Well, they may listen, but they could give two hoots!!

Obviously, you are a friend of the council...and that's why you are promoting Abed & Gallo.

Are you kidding? $9.8 million budget shortfall, $19.8 million dollar (taxpayer money) give-away to C.W.Clark hotel developer, 7.5% budget cuts in all but two city departments....AND THESE ARE THE GUYS YOU SUPPORT?

That is a really bad joke. I will NOT be Voting for ABED or GAllO. They are making the city worse - not better. Bigger not better.

And do you think it's a coincidence that the council will spend $21 million on this road expansion, while the new Harmony Grove development (by some of the council's favorite developers) is just down the road. How convenient? Not a coincidence - but, a deliberate plan.

Wait for the city to essentially abandon the north and east park of town (except E. Valley Pkwy businesses), while they build up the west-side looking to make a HUGE downtown, complete with NCTD's proposed 200 residential units next to transit center. Mark my words!

No on T wrote on Sep 6, 2008 8:36 PM:Here we go again, spending millions of dollars on a project that is already in cost overruns. The ink is still wet, and the City already has a new bond measure coming before the voters, this time a $98 million dollar High School bond measure that is far less necessary and far less well thought out than the PPH project.

In a time of declining enrollments, rising achievement, and economic uncertainty the high school district wants us to finance a new high school and renovations for the existing schools. And, they want us to allow the bonds to sit accruing interest for 11 years before we start paying on them.

Intelligent. I think not.

Vote no on T

To Karl wrote on Sep 8, 2008 8:02 AM:Good thoughts...Hmm, 46 million to the school district, 21 million to the Citracado project, and 19 million for the hotel. Yet, all city employees are going without raises, and are working short handed because vacant postions go unfilled due to budget shortfalls. Sounds like someone needs a basic home economics class over at the council.

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