SOLANA BEACH — The Solana Beach City Council is refining plans for the expansion of La Colonia Park, reviewing two proposals for a vacant lot that will include a new community building, an event lawn, pickleball courts, and additional parking.
The city bought the vacant lot along Stevens Avenue in 2018 but only began developing rough plans over the past couple of years. The lot is located just north of the existing skate park and basketball courts at La Colonia Park, with a “panhandle” connecting the site to Valley Avenue.
After giving feedback during an initial discussion last year, the City Council met on Feb. 12 to review and discuss two high-level design options for the land.
The designs include different layouts for a three-story community center with space for youth, seniors and the larger community, as well as parking areas, two new pickleball courts, a recreation area and an event lawn.
Using the council’s feedback from that meeting, city staff will return in the next couple of months with a recommended land use update to the La Colonia Master Plan, which was originally updated in 2008.
“This is our one shot, this is our one park, this is our one opportunity to do something more than what this city inherited, when we inherited La Colonia Park when we became a city in 1986,” said Councilmember Jill McDonald.
After the Master Plan update, the city will also start developing more concrete designs for the lot, pursuing funding and gathering community feedback. Since it will likely be years before construction begins, the city will also consider interim improvements to the lot to make it usable in the meantime.
“We’ve had the lot for seven years or so, and it really has just been vacant that whole time,” said Dan Goldberg, acting director of engineering and public works. “We can do some minor grading to it to provide something to it.”
Design options
The first option proposes a three-level community building totaling 12,900 square feet along Stevens Avenue. The lowest floor would be the youth center, with the second floor serving as the senior center and the third as a city community center.
A parking lot with 13 spaces would also be accessible from Stevens north of the community center.
In Option 2, the three-level building would have a youth center and senior center on the lowest level. Most of the middle level would be used for a 32-space parking area in addition to city office uses. The top level would include a large community area and city programming uses.
Due to the larger size of the community building (around 19,970 square feet total), option 2 would include a smaller event lawn and recreation area than option 1.
“Going through the preliminary design of all of this, one of the thoughts was, why not try to maximize this as much as possible?” said Goldberg.
Because of the site’s uneven grading, the building would appear to be two stories from Stevens. The youth area in the community center would partially serve as the new site for the Boys and Girls Club of San Dieguito, which currently operates out of a trailer on the main park property.
The designs also included a vehicle connection from Valley Avenue to the new parcel, allowing connections from the park’s east side.
Most council members favored Option 2 due to the additional parking and larger building it provided. Councilmember Jewel Edson noted that the city offices would allow for a full view of the park and that while parking at street level is not ideal from a visual perspective, the design maximizes the use of space.
“I know money is always an issue, and we don’t have any at this point for this project, but definitely at this point I still prefer option 2, just because I think it gives us more opportunity to do more in the future,” said Edson. “I like the fact that we get a whole lot more bang for our buck, square-footage-wise with the building, by having that overlap.”
Other improvements
The updated master plan will also include suggested improvements for the existing park area, particularly the community center at the southeast edge of the park.
Council members discussed removing the old wooden trellis in the building’s courtyard, updating the kitchen, changing or moving the small stage area, and adding new glass doors at the entrance to the community meeting room to give the space more light.
La Colonia community leader Lisa Montes raised concerns about these improvements impacting the Tree of Life tile mural outside the community center, which features the names of historic La Colonia families. She asked that the city include La Colonia families in conversations about this possibility.
“That tile was put there for a purpose, and when people come back to La Colonia who moved away, or current residents come, it’s a source of pride, of history, and for being the first community of Solana Beach, so please show some respect to those families,” Montes said.
City Manager Alyssa Muto stated her commitment to including La Colonia families in the process, especially if the city chooses to move forward with renovations that could impact the mural. She also said it would be transferred to a safe place if impacted.
Since the new area will add two pickleball courts, council members also said they would support removing the existing pickleball court in the north area of the existing park and turning it into another community sitting area.
“I personally would replace the existing pickleball court and use that as additional picnic area, because our picnic area is really well used there at the park,” Edson said.
At a previous meeting last March, the council also discussed the possibility of relocating the Heritage Museum from its current location east of the lawn to either Stevens Avenue or Valley Avenue to make room for other amenities.
However, staff said last week that this was found to be unnecessary.
Next steps
After the Master Plan update is approved, the city will begin community engagement and design for the proposed new community building and upgrades to the existing community center.
“For both, we will initiate engagement with the community and interested groups — community, youth and senior, among others — to refine ideas and then bring back to council in the next eight to 10 months with conceptual designs and estimated costs,” Muto told The Coast News.
The city currently has no funding for the project. Mayor Lesa Heebner said the city would likely rely on grants or bank loans, with some matching funds possibly coming from the city’s coffers.
However, due to uncertainty on the federal level, it is unclear when these grants will be available. At the same time, the city is also seeking funding for its Marine Safety Center renovation at Fletcher Cove.
The city has completed several improvements at the park due to the original La Colonia Master Plan, including the Veterans Courtyard at the community center in 2014, the skate park in 2019, and a new playground at the park’s south end last year.
