VISTA — The City Council agreed this week to improve a vacant lot along Avenida de Benito Juárez with a new pocket park that will include a water-misting feature and several other amenities for local families.
Tentatively called Benito Juárez Pocket Park, the park is planned at the corner of Avenida de Benito Juárez and Avenida de la Plaza in northern Vista. The City Council chose a preferred design for the park in 2024, which included plans for a children’s playground, swingset, shade structure, boundary fencing, picnic areas, and a possible splash pad.
However, after further research, staff said a splash pad would not be compatible with the site due to the limited building area (the entire site measures less than a quarter of an acre), long-term maintenance requirements, and a lack of required infrastructure.
On Tuesday, city staff asked the council to consider a water-misting feature instead, which would use less water while still providing a way for families to cool off during the summer. Council members said they would be in favor of the mister, in addition to shade and increased tree cover.
“I think a lot of the residents would find a lot of relief utilizing this type of amenity,” said Councilmember Corinna Contreras. “Some green grass with a misting area is a great accommodation for the folks that live around here and will love and utilize this park probably on a daily basis.”
The council also agreed to include a prefabricated single-stall restroom similar to the one installed at Pala Vista Park.
Vista received a $1.12 million grant from the state Department of Parks and Recreation in 2022 for the creation of the park, and is under a deadline to complete construction by the end of 2027. To meet these deadlines, the city plans to submit a design contract for the project next month.
The site is surrounded by other youth facilities, including the Vista Boys and Girls Club down the street and the Vista Academy of Visual and Performing Arts around the corner.
“It’s really situated well in the community to create a placemaking spot for our youth and families,” said Recreation and Community Services Director Margaret Hamer.
The project will also add new sidewalks along the park’s perimeter, and a tree currently in poor condition will be removed.
Mayor John Franklin asked if a cistern could be installed to collect the water from the misters and use it for other purposes. Staff said they could look into it.
The misting feature would not use recycled water, but domestic flow-through water.
While the park itself will have lighting, Contreras noted that more lighting is needed in the surrounding area to make it more pedestrian-friendly.
“One thing I just want to discuss about the site of the park is that we need better lighting within a quarter mile of this park,” she said.
Additional new parks are also in development in Vista along Breeze Hill Road and Matagual Drive.
Joint use agreement with VUSD
On the topic of parks, the City Council also discussed expanding and adjusting its joint-use agreement with the Vista Unified School District at its Tuesday meeting.
The city has had an agreement with the school district since 2015 that allows shared use of various parks, fields, gyms, pools, trails, and other recreation facilities. This agreement allows for expanded recreation uses in the city without having to invest millions of dollars in new park facilities.
Council members noted that several parks and fields around the city sit empty outside of school hours, when they could be used for more youth sports teams and other activities.
Councilmember Dan O’Donnell noted that Little League teams in the area have had to turn players away due to a lack of field space, and said securing space for teams has not been a streamlined or straightforward process.
“We need to streamline and make sure that the accessibility is there, because I think they’ve turned down hundreds of kids this year for some of the leagues, and they’ve had to go Oceanside or other neighboring cities, and that should never, never happen,” O’Donnell said.
Councilmember Jeff Fox noted that the school district also has two new vacant properties — the former Vista Innovation and Design Academy (VIDA) and Bobier Elementary — following the recent school consolidation process.
He said the district could advocate for these sites to be used in ways that benefit the community, such as for sports fields or a sports park.
“That is something that I think, if we start partnering with them on that now, it maybe lets us have some sort of say and conversation about the direction of those, especially if there’s some sort of joint funding on some sort of joint use going into it,” Fox said.
Disruptive comments
During the meeting, the council was also barraged with offensive statements made by at least one public commenter speaking via Zoom.
The caller appeared to register for public comment under several different names. At multiple points during the meeting, the caller used racial slurs and made death threats about Black people, in addition to using homophobic and antisemitic language.
During these comments, Franklin called for their audio to be cut off, and City Attorney Walter Chung could also be seen gesturing for the audio to be turned off.
City officials apologized to the public for the remarks.
“To the students that were here, to all the public that were here, I don’t believe any of us stand for or with anybody that uses that language or believes those thoughts. It’s disgusting, it’s vile, it’s repugnant, and it has no place in a civil society,” O’Donnell said.
Franklin said the city needs to be able to draw the line on offensive language without violating individuals’ First Amendment rights.
“We’ll ask our city attorney to review for us all the applicable case law in that, and make sure we’re able to promptly cut people off that are using such horrible language and threats of violence,” Franklin said.
Chung said speakers can be cut off when they use language that intimidates or threatens.
