Group owes $3.5 million on land preserved for city
By Monica Unhold
http://signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080614-9999-1mc14shores.html
June 14, 2008
DEL MAR – After banding together to secure the last piece of open space in Del Mar before it was snapped up by developers, members of the Campaign for Del Mar Shores are left with a large debt and limited time to pay it off.
The site is prime real estate in the heart of Del Mar – 5.3 acres of ocean-view property at Ninth Street and Camino del Mar, the city's main street.
The community group spent three years raising $5 million to buy the land to give to the city. It now has 11 months to raise the remaining $3.5 million in the $8.5 million sale that became final last month.
The city has guaranteed that the group will come up with the balance to pay the seller, the Del Mar Union School District.
“We're very optimistic that we'll be able to raise the remaining funds,” campaign chairman Joe Sullivan said this week.
The group must pay off the balance in monthly installments of $500,000, with 5 percent interest, between November and May 2009 or the school district can sell the property to someone else.
The playing fields at the site, which is called the Del Mar Shores property for an elementary school that closed there in 1970, are a major reason the community rallied to save the land from developers.
Kim Filanc, a 20-year resident of Del Mar, is particularly attached to the property because her son and daughter spent a lot of time there as children.
Her daughter attended a preschool that once operated there and her son played baseball on the field. Although she does not go to the park as often anymore, she donated $25,000 to help it remain open for public use for a long time to come, she said.
“It's just nice to know it's there,” Filanc said.
Some of the buildings on the site are used by the school district for administrative offices, and the rest by the private Winston School.
The Winston School, which has occupied part of the site for 20 years and enrolls children with special learning needs, has promised to raise 35 percent to 50 percent of the property's purchase price. In return, the school has signed a long-term lease to remain on the city-owned property.
On June 1, Campaign for Del Mar Shores held a community barbecue to celebrate the May 19 closing of escrow. The campaign invited the 300 people who attended to suggest how the land should be used.
While the suggestions have not yet been formally compiled, Sullivan said they mostly revolved around recreational uses such as improving the playground, installing picnic benches and adding an outdoor fitness course.
Members of an informal dog group that meets on the grounds in the afternoons suggested adding an enclosed dog park area, Sullivan said. A larger baseball field and community garden were suggested. Although the community had the opportunity to make suggestions, the City Council has no immediate plans to put the use of the park on its agenda, Councilwoman Crystal Crawford said.
For now, the priority is to help fundraising efforts to pay off the $3.5 million owed to the school district, she said.
The group has until Nov. 15 to raise the first $500,000 payment. Nearly 225 people have donated to the campaign, with contributions of up to $1 million coming from some individuals.
To raise the additional money, the group plans to hold neighborhood coffees, campaign coordinator Barbara Mandel Pache said. The group may also apply for private grants.
If every adult in Del Mar donated $1,000 to the park, the $3.5 million would be paid off, Pache said. While that goal may seem absurd in some places, it may not be in Del Mar, where the median household income is about $113,000.
Sullivan said fundraising was remarkably successful when there was no guarantee the purchase would happen.
“People were very generous in donating on the promise and hope of acquiring the property,” he said.
The Del Mar Shores land has long been connected to service to the community. In the late 1800s, it was the original location of the Del Mar train station. From 1947 to 1970, it was the site of Del Mar Shores School. Eventually the student population outgrew the facilities. Students were diverted to new campuses, and the school was closed.
Monica Unhold is a Union-Tribune intern.
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