Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Supervisors set hearing for March 13 to acquire Pala property for Regional

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve the purchase of a Pala property, March 13, which will be used for a Regional Communications System radio facility.

The board of supervisors voted 5-0, Feb. 13, to set the March 13 hearing date to purchase the property from First Service Financial for the appraised value of $525,000. If the county supervisors approve the purchase, the county will also pay $10,000 for staff and appraisal expenses and $2,500 for closing and title costs.

The Regional Communications System, which allows emergency and public safety agencies to communicate with each other, was established in 1995. The county of San Diego and the participating agencies realized that the RCS would eventually approach the end of its useful life and require replacement. In June 2015, the county supervisors authorized the director of the county’s Department of Purchasing and Contracting to issue a request for proposals to replace the existing RCS, to award a contract upon successful negotiations and determination of a fair and reasonable price and to amend the contract as required to reflect changes to services and funding allocation subject to the approval of the sheriff. Motorola Solutions was awarded the contract in June 2016.

The RCS upgrade includes three phases. Phase I was the system design and planning phase which included detailed technical designs, project planning and identification of new radio facilities. Phase II is the implementation of the new technology at existing RCS facilities, consisting of the procurement of the new radio system hardware and software, the replacement of the existing hardware with the new equipment and the migration of dispatch center equipment and user radios to the new system. Phase III is the new site development, the construction of facilities and the integration into the system. The system completion is expected to occur during fiscal year 2018-2019.

Phase III includes seven subphases, so each of those subphases may be exercised individually. Motorola and the sheriff’s department worked together to identify potential sites which will provide the required geographic coverage. A radio facility currently operates at the Encina Power Station in Carlsbad, which is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2018. The decommissioning is expected to result in the removal of the 400-foot-high exhaust stack which currently provides public safety radio coverage to surrounding communities, and multiple coastal sites were identified to ensure continued coverage for those areas.

In November 2016, the board of supervisors exercised a contract option for facility improvements at the Harmony Hill site in southeast Escondido and authorized negotiations, to be ratified by subsequent board of supervisors’ action, for the purchase and lease of sites for RCS support in seven areas, including one site on Camp Pendleton and one or two sites in unincorporated northeast San Diego County.

Two board actions in June 2017 addressed desired sites. One 5-0 vote approved a lease agreement with the Department of the Navy for a radio facility on San Onofre Peak at Camp Pendleton, and the other 5-0 vote authorized a contract option with the city of Carlsbad to construct a new radio facility on that city’s Ellery Water Reservoir property. The RCS facility on Camp Pendleton will utilize a 40-foot by 40-foot area off Skyline Road adjacent to the Coast Guard Rescue 21 site, which is within the Coast Guard radio communications compound.

County staff identified a 12.9-acre parcel in Pala which is listed for sale. The parcel currently includes a single-family house and two wireless communication towers. The property is northwest of Pala Casino and can be accessed from state Route 76.

First Service Financial is only interested in pursuing a sale of the entire 12.9 acres. The county will not need the entire property for the new RCS radio site, but after the county acquires the entire property, various options will be assessed for the portion which is not needed to construct and maintain the radio site.

Staff from the county’s Department of Planning and Development Services reviewed the location, purpose and extent of the potential acquisition in September and made a finding that the project would be consistent with the county’s general plan. The county’s Department of Environmental Health reviewed the potential transaction for hazardous materials on the property, and a survey for asbestos or lead was determined not to be required. The director of the county’s Department of General Services entered into an option agreement with First Service Financial, Jan. 23.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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