Fallbrook CPG recommends naming new park after Russell

Earlier in 2020, San Diego County acquired 6.8 acres on the south side of Fallbrook Street between Morro Road and Golden Road for a new park. The Aug. 17 Fallbrook Community Planning Group meeting included a presentation on the public input the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation has received on the park, and the meeting also included a unanimous vote to recommend that the new park be named after Jim Russell.

The Department of Parks and Recreation has been working with the community to identify specific amenities for the park, and DPR park project manager Stephanie Kopplin addressed the planning group about the input to date and subsequent outreach. Virtual public meetings were held May 22 and July 22, and a third public meeting is planned for early fall. The input will be used to develop a conceptual plan along with associated environmental review. DPR expects to send the park to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors for the authorization of bids for a construction contract in late spring 2021, and construction is currently expected to take place during fall 2021 and winter 2022.

“We’re excited about this park in Fallbrook,” Jack Wood, chair of Fallbrook Community Planning Group, said.

The July 22 meeting had approximately 40 active participants and resulted in 92 comments. DPR received 265 online responses between July 22 and Aug. 5 with 253 of those being from Fallbrook residents and the other 12 being submitted by residents of Bonsall or other neighboring communities.

Two options for the park in terms of amenities have been presented to the community. Both options include 68 parking spaces, including stalls meeting Americans with Disabilities Act standards, and bicycle parking. Both options will have play areas, a picnic area, a multipurpose field and an open field. A skateboarding facility is also expected to be part of the park. One of the options includes a dog park while the other version would have exercise stations in that area. The community input has been nearly evenly split between the two options.

The input from the planning group, which was neither confirmed nor refuted by a formal vote, included assurances about park maintenance.

“We work really closely with our operations team,” Kopplin said.

Traffic circulation was another matter the planning group sought to optimize.

“It would make sense to have one entrance and a separate exit,” Roy Moosa, a member of the planning group, said.

Concerns about homeless people occupying the park after hours were also discussed. The park will be locked at night and patrolled daily by a ranger, and lighting will allow for after-hours surveillance.

Russell spent 19 1/2 years in the U.S. Marine Corps before a 1977 motorcycle accident which left him paralyzed and forced his retirement from the Marine Corps. After his retirement, he moved from Camp Pendleton to Calle Linda in 1978. The county’s general plan was updated in 1978, which resulted in Russell becoming involved in county matters. The plan defined two-acre lots as rural and one-acre lots as urban. When Russell learned of plans to build urban-style dwellings across the street from his home, he informed the county that the proposal was contrary to community character and was told that he lived in an urban area. Russell and five other community members sued the county and won, and the board of supervisors placed a moratorium on any projects in Fallbrook which required sewer service until the situation was resolved. Eventually the county agreed to return Fallbrook to rural status, and all of Fallbrook was rezoned to two-acre minimum lots. Russell initially ran for the Fallbrook Community Planning Group in 1986 and was reelected eight times. He replaced David Lowry as the planning group chair 1 1/2 years after he joined the planning group, and the other Fallbrook Community Planning Group members reelected him to that position each year until his death Jan. 17. In addition to serving on the community planning group for more than three decades, Russell was a founding member of the Fallbrook Center for the Arts.

“He contributed so much to this community,” Wood said.

Russell was also a president of the California Macadamia Nut Society and a national and local board member of Paralyzed Veterans of America. He set up multiple sports programs for veterans and worked with local real estate agents on housing needs for the disabled. He was recognized as the volunteer of the year for the county’s Department of Planning and Land Use, which is now the Department of Planning and Development Services, citizen of the year with the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce and veteran of the year with the Cal-Diego Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Russell was also presented with the Citizens Leadership Award from the American Planning Association.

“He was quite an interesting guy,” Eileen Delaney, a member of the planning group, said.

“He’s a gentleman I admired and I think this would be a wonderful tribute to him,” Bill O’Connor, a member of the planning group, said.

“He taught me a lot,” Delaney said. “We couldn’t honor him any better than this park being named after him.”

The only concern about naming the park after Russell was the possible perception that the planning group would be self-serving by honoring one of their own members.

“We look at it from the standpoint of all the other contributions he made in the community,” Wood said.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].