ENCINITAS — After a year of operation, the Encinitas Community Park has largely been a major success city officials said during a first-year evaluation of the park.
The $40 million park opened in January 2015 after more than a decade of land acquisition, planning and construction. The city Parks and Recreation Commission held a walking tour of the park and conducted the annual evaluation this week.
“There are several minor issues that they plan to address, but overall the park is doing its job, the public is using it extensively, and we are fortunate indeed to have it,” Deputy Mayor Lisa Shaffer said in a weekly newsletter to her supporters.
According to city statistics, the park’s signature amenities — the skate park and the Maggie Houlihan Memorial Dog Park — are used by more than 1,000 people per week, and seven youth leagues use the athletic fields more than 5,000 hours during the calendar year.
Additionally, the park has received more than 20 million social media impressions and the dog park has been well reviewed on the social media site Yelp, according to the staff report.
“In the year since the park’s opening, the park has quickly become a premier community destination,” according to the staff report.
The city has also addressed several issues raised by the community, including installing a decorative metal fence around portions of the skate park to keep skaters from entering the sidewalk and drive areas, placing anti-graffiti coatings on park benches, installing automatic gates at the park to make sure it is not used after hours, and planting additional screening around the dog park.
City staff will be addressing several other issues with the park over the course of the next year, including potentially placing sleeves around the athletic field areas so that temporary fencing can be installed around the areas, installing better pathways around the park, installing energy-efficient lighting in the parking areas and other fixes.
