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<February

San Dieguito River Valley Open Space Park Joint Powers Authority meeting of February 15, 2013

News gathered at the JPA meeting.

posted 02/18/13

1. Changing of the guard: after the election of Nov 2012, there are now two new JPA Board members: Supervisor Dave Roberts replaces Pam Slater-Price and Mark Kersy is replacing Carl DeMaio as the second San Diego City Council JPA Board Member. Kersy was absent.
Next year the Board Chair will be Jim Cunningham, Poway and Vice Chair: Lesa Heebner, Solana Beach.

2.Dick Bobertz, Executive Director’s  Report.

• First wedding in 100 years was celebrated at Sykes Adobe.
• The California Coastal Conservancy tried to recover the 1.5 M cost of purchase of the Boudreau property. The matter has now been settled without disbursement

3. Budget Discussion.

• Jim Cunningham, Dave Roberts and Dick Bobertz met with San Diego Mayor Bob Filner seeking to reinstate funding for the River Park in FY 13/14. The Mayor will include $ 254,000 in the budget he will propose to the City Council. This budget will be voted by the San Diego City Council on April 15.
• The issue of $ 802,346 in deferred contributions was also raised. Filner asked for a listing of these deferred expenses which was presented at the JPA Board meeting. Filner was non-commital.
* Dianne Jacob brought up the issue of the possible near future retirement of Dick Bobertz and Susan Carter. She stressed the need to anticipate the change. In the future these two functions will be merged in a single CEO job.

4. The agreement which defines the structure of the River Park JPA will expire in June 2014. A new agreement has been drafted and adopted by the JPA Board. The future contributions of the City of San Diego and San Diego County will be 31 % of the budget, the cities of Poway and Escondido will contribute 13 % and the Cities of Del Mar and Solana Beach 6 % each.
This agreement must now be adopted by the 6 JPA member agencies before implementation.

5. Leana Bulay, Interpretive Ranger made a presentation on a science program offered to the park visitors.

6. Reports were made on the status of lighting at the Lake Hodges Bridge and the Santa Isabel Backcountry Interpretive Center.

CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE  
Meeting of February 1, 2013

San Dieguito River Park news, gleaned at the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting on February 1, 2013

posted 02/04/13

1. Dick  Bobertz reported meeting with San Diego Mayor Bob Filner. Filner will restore funding for the Park in San Diego's budget. The budget needs approval from the San Diego  City Council. They did not discuss the "arrears" which now amounts to 750 K.

2. Before leaving office Supervisor Pam Slater provided 338 K for the Outdoor Classroom.  Another 25 K to purchase a truck.

3. Rand Newman, San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy Chair and the Conservancy promised to raise another 150 K for preliminary work at the Open Air Class room site.  He received an offer of a contribution from Kilroy.  He asked: should he accept it?  Some said yes, some said no...

4. Rough grading at the Open Air Classroom site will start right away and resume after bird nesting season.

5. Southern California Edison will close its offices on San Andres at the end of February. The rangers will occupy office space at the Fairgrounds as required by the Cease and Desist Orders, until space is provided at the old SCE offices site.

6. CALTRANS made a presentation on the RR double tracking. Said that funding is ranked in 4 tiers. This project is tier 2, thus scheduling construction for 2030.

text in pdf format here

<January

Widening the RR track across the San Dieguito River

posted 01/29/13

Photo © Stu Smith

SANDAG, San Diego’s Regional Planning agency has undertaken planning and environmental scoping for double tracking a 1.1 mile segment of the Los Angeles to San Diego (LOSSAN) rail corridor, between Solana Beach and Jimmy Durante Boulevard.
The project is one of several improvements between Oceanside and San Diego with the goal of double tracking 97 % of the rail line by 2030. At the present time 46 % of the line is still single track.
This particular project will include the replacement of the 96 year-old wooden trestle of the San Dieguito Bridge, a special events 1000 ft long platform at the Fairgrounds and pedestrian undercrossing of the track.

The project led by SANDAG will involve collaboration with The North county Transit District, CALTRANS, the San Dieguito River Park JPA,  the Federal Rail Road Administration and several other agencies.
The estimated cost of the whole project is about 100 M dollars with 9.5 million already funded for the preliminary engineering and environmental phases.
The only sobering piece of information is that the project is not scheduled for completion until 2030. No changes are planned to the rail line along the Del Mar Bluffs, which is planned to be relocated after 2014.

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