Candidate for
Council Member; City of Oceanside

Public Parkland: This Land Is Your Land

I support keeping our parks as public assets for the people of Oceanside, not turning them over to special interests for commercial projects. The council majority supported giving away our parkland at Goat Hill. They thought it was a great location for a (taxpayer-subsidized) stadium and most recently for a private elite soccer training facility.

I believe parkland should stay parkland. If there's ever a reason to consider any other use, the first thing to do is to take it to a vote of the people. The current council prefers to spend months in back-room negotiations with special interest developers.

The council voted to disband the El Corazon Citizen's Committee and turn the park over to the Economic Development Commission, ignoring the needs of Oceanside residents. The citizen-developed plan for El Corazon has 212 acres of parkland and 44 acres for commercial projects. Council priority should be to build the park and use commercial development to help make that happen.

Our City Council majority just spent eight months in closed session discussion that would have given the majority of the remaining El Corazon parkland to private developers. I support the adopted Specific Plan for El Corazon and will not agree to closed session give-away meetings that violate it.

El Corazon is a wonderful example of what can happen when the people of Oceanside work together. The adopted Specific Plan is the community's vision for a wonderful park in the heart of our city. Your elected council members need to support the community and work to implement that plan. The City Council should not negotiate with special interest developers who want to turn our park into one more massive development or housing tract. I support the implementation of the El Corazon Citizen's Committee plan. As I said above, This Land Is Your Land.