When it comes to building the Greens Neighborhood Park in Murieta South, it may be all or nothing, the Parks Committee realized Thursday.

Due to budget limitations, it seemed likely the park would be built in phases. But the demands of the location and the expectations of users may not allow that.

The 2.6-acre park site is located in a 21-acre wetlands and open space area with access from Jigger Court, a cul-de-sac off Colbert Drive in Murieta South.

Designer Sara N. Fix of Yamasaki Landscape Architecture presented the park design at a sparsely attended meeting at the Rancho Murieta Association Thursday evening. The plan calls for an open grassy area, walkways, parking, swings and separate playgrounds for toddlers and older children.

The park plan includes a central picnic/barbecue area, surrounded by trees. See a PDF of the full drawing, including plan details, here (1MB download).

The features are based on suggestions that were gathered at a public meeting in April. That, too, was attended by a small number of residents, but it was a different group. The RMA sent out 119 notices to residents of the Greens, and the meetings were announced in the media and at RMA board meetings.

Following Fix's presentation, RMA Architectural Manager Mark Parsons introduced the idea of phasing in the park components, saying the "skeleton" of the park needed to go in first to prevent encroachment by the surrounding natural area. He said planting 93 trees to define the perimeter and provide shade was a "key element" and recommended putting in walkways and replacing weeds with a grassy area. "Otherwise nature's going to take it back," he said. Play structures and swings costing a total of $75,000 could be added later, perhaps with help from local service organizations, he suggested.

Michelle Petro, one of the half-dozen residents who attended the meeting, disagreed. "That park wouldn't be of any use to me if it didn't have the play structures," she said.

Petro said she was representing "a moms' group" that wants to see a water feature for small children installed at the park.

Parks Committee chairman Paul Gumbinger said the idea was discussed at the first public meeting on the design and rejected because it went beyond the limited scope of the park. Fix added that the park won't have electrical service to power a pump.

Gumbinger summed up the discussion about the demands of the site and expectations of users by saying, "In essence, you might as well do the whole park. I think that's what we should shoot for."

"Once you get to a certain point, you might just as well go the rest of the way," Parsons agreed.

Pete McKenzie, whose home backs up to the wetlands area, expressed concerns about noise, vandalism and how the park will appear from his home. He also said he's seen a bobcat roaming the area.

The estimated cost of the park is $550,000.

"We think we can do a lot better than that cost estimate, but those are the numbers that are available right now until we get the design completed and then we can actually bid everything out," Parsons told the group. He pointed out the estimate includes a cost for grading, which will probably be done as a training exercise
by the Operating Engineers training center.

There is currently about $300,000 in the parks fund. Only a portion of that amount would be available for the Greens Neighborhood Park if a distinction is made between funding neighborhood and community parks.

The parks fund is made up of contributions from developers and smaller contributions RMA members pay through their monthly dues. The contributions are made on a per-unit basis for new development.

Due to the downturn in the housing market, no new development is expected until 2012 or later.

Gumbinger said at the September meeting, the RMA board will discuss using money that's set aside in reserves for future park contributions, and he invited the group to attend. There will be $400,000 in park contribution reserve funds next year, he said.

Discussions about the park will continue at Parks Committee meetings. The committee meetings are public and take place at 4 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of the month at the RMA Building.

Previous coverage

• Park meeting Thursday will detail limited scope of new South park (Sept. 2, 2008)
• Meeting on new South park Sept. 4 (Aug. 2, 2008)
• New estimates for South park multiply its cost by 10 (July 1, 2008)
• Neighbors take first cut at planning park for South (April 25, 2008)