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

FCPG recommends 'Village View Park' or 'Jacaranda Park'

County picks ‘Morro View Park’ for new park name

What is currently being called Fallbrook Local Park by the County of San Diego will have a different name, and on May 17 the Fallbrook Community Planning Group provided its two preferred suggested names.

The planning group voted 10-3 to recommend Village View Park and Jacaranda Park as the two names to be submitted to the county for consideration. Tom Harrington, Ross Pike, and Anna Strahan voted against the motion. Lee DeMeo and Jeniene Domercq were not able to participate in the meeting.

In March 2020, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of 6.8 acres of land on the south side of Fallbrook Street between Morro Road and Golden Road for use as a local park. Three virtual public meetings were held last year with the input being used to develop a conceptual plan.

The anticipated amenities include play areas, a picnic area, a multi-purpose field, an open field, a skateboarding facility, and a dog park. The restrooms will be shaded to reduce energy use and mitigate heat effects. The 68 planned parking spaces include three stalls meeting Americans with Disabilities Act standards, and parking for five bicycles is also planned. More than 300 trees will be planted, and gardens with native plants will provide local habitat for wildlife. The park will also have multi-use trails.

In August 2020, the Fallbrook Community Planning Group unanimously voted to recommend that the new park be named after Jim Russell, who was a community leader prior to his January 2020 death. The county no longer names public facilities after people (parks already named such as Don Dussault Park, which recognizes a Fallbrook resident who helped implement the Fallbrook park program, are allowed to retain that name, and the Fallbrook Village Association rather than the county owns and maintains Jackie Heyneman Park and Vince Ross Village Square), so the county's Department of Parks and Recreation asked the planning group to provide recommendations for a different name to the county.

DPR also asked the advisory board for County Service Area 81, which covers parks in Fallbrook, DeLuz, and Rainbow, for a recommended name. "We both had discussions," said planning group Parks and Recreation Public Facilities Committee Chair Stephani Baxter.

The Parks and Recreation Public Facilities Committee met in April and recommended six names to the full planning group: Village View Park, Morro View Park, Jacaranda Park, Avocado Park, Katuktu Park, and Paavara Park. Katuktu is the Luiseno term for sleeping Indian hills and Paavara is Luiseno for bird dust bathing place.

Morro Vista Park was not recommended due to concern that use of the word Vista may cause confusion whether the park is in Vista or in Fallbrook. Golden Morro Park was discarded because Golden Road residents did not want the park's name to promote use of that street.

"The one that represents Fallbrook the most is Village View Park," said Roy Moosa.

Moosa, who is the Fallbrook Village Association president as well as a planning group board member, noted that village is what Fallbrook is, view is what the park provides, and park is what the facility is.

Planning group member Eileen Delaney noted that her first choice is Village View Park and her second choice is Jacaranda Park. "This park is going to have lots and lots of jacaranda trees that Jackie Heyneman has wanted to get," Delaney said.

Strahan prefers Paavara Park. "We don't have any indigenous names in town," she said.

The only county park with an indigenous name is In-Ko-Pah Park in Jacumba; In-Ko-Pah means "the mountain people" in Kumeyaay.

Strahan also warned the group against calling her preference Padawan Park; in the Star Wars movies a Padawan is an apprentice Jedi knight. Strahan's concern about mocking the Luiseno word caused many planning group members to recommend avoiding that name for the park. "It's going to be very difficult to pronounce," said planning group chair Jack Wood.

Pike conducted a social media poll, although not one previously discussed by the planning group. The top three names from the 135 respondents to that poll were Paavara Park, Avocado Park, and Katuktu Park.

"I would hesitate to take the reply of 135 people," Moosa said.

However, according to Baxter, CSA 81 met May 20 and learned that the county had already picked Morro View Park as the name for the new park.

DPR expects to ask the Board of Supervisors to authorize the advertisement for bids and subsequent award of a construction contract for the park in late spring 2021, and construction is currently expected to take place during fall 2021 and winter 2022.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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