Hall Property & Soccer Field Development

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The City of Encinitas has been promising to build active-use fields for nearly 20 years.  The first proposed site (where Encinitas Country Day was recently built) was sold and the Hall Property was acquired in 2001 with intention of building an active-use park in what had been a thriving commercial nursery.

 In June 2002, the city conducted a design charrette, that was attended by some 200 citizens, planners, school district administrators and other interested parties.  The charrette was designed to get broad-based input, but the process was dominated by neighborhood residents, as most of the city was basically unaware of the process.

Despite that the 20+ park designs that were developed that Saturday afternoon included several common elements, with two nearly universal: Water elements and fields.   Using common elements generated, the professional park designers developed a plan that included five mixed-use fields, a skate park, another tot lot, and a proposed swim center.  Nearly two years later (March 2004), a design plan was adopted by the city council. 

A draft Environmental Impact Report was finally completed in January 2007.  Comments were collected and it was returned for revision.  It remains incomplete, as Global Warming Impact portion has been ordered while the report was being revised to respond to initial public comment.  The second draft of the report is now not due until at least June 2008.  That will mark six years since the initial design charrette. 

Since the initial charrette, it has appeared that the city was preparing to defend against a lawsuit.  As a result, every ‘i’ has been dotted and every ‘t’ crossed and fields that could have been on line several years ago remain at least a year or two away.  And with financial markets roiling, it will become increasingly more expensive to finance their development.   

Encinitas Soccer League has had to turn to the school districts to find enough field space for the 1400+ kids in the league.   However, over the last couple of years, we have lost Olivenhain Pioneer as a game field due to school expansion, will not have access to Capri this season and will lose some of Park Dale Lane the following year, as that site is revitalized.  Fields are not the first priority (and rightfully so) of our school districts and, as a result, many of their fields are not well maintained well.   

What can you do?  Contact the city council and let them know that you want the park, and the associated fields, built and built soon.  You can monitor this page or www.5forkids.org for updates and scheduled meetings.  We will alert our members to these meetings via email and we will encourage everyone to attend and to bring your children, too.  it can be quite a civics lesson.

The Draft Environmental Impact Report can be found at http://www.ci.encinitas.ca.us/Government/PublicD/Hall_Draft_Program_EIR/