Welcome to Chula Vista Citycast, your in-depth bi-monthly look at the people, services, and stories shaping our community. Each episode will take you behind the scenes of city operations, talk with local leaders, share public safety tips, highlight events and community stories, and break down the projects and programs that matter to you. Thanks for joining us as we bring you closer to your city, one conversation at a time. This month's episode, Parks for the People, looks at not only what Parks and Rec provides for our community, but also what goes into maintaining and restoring our city's parks, including the ongoing work at Hilltop and Eucalyptus Parks. Our guests include Luis Schar, Chula Vista's Director of Engineering, and Frank Carson, Director of Parks and Recreation.
SPEAKER_03Hello and welcome to the inaugural episode of Chula Vista CityCast. I'm John Seahumsky, your host and the city's Chief Communications Officer. I'm excited to take you behind the scenes today of the places you gather, play, eat, or just hang out are wonderful city parks. Every day, city teams work hard to maintain 70 parks, nine community centers, two aquatic facilities spread out across Chula Vista's 52 square miles so residents can enjoy beautiful, safe, and welcoming spaces. But Parks and Rec is much more than green lawns and open fields, it's where you can register for programs and camps, boost your child's sport skills, find enrichment activities during school breaks, dive into aquatics, or simply discover something new and interesting. Whether you're a parent exploring options for kids of all ages, or a resident looking for a fresh experience in your own neighborhood, Parks Narrec truly has something for everyone. But keeping these places thriving and functioning the way they're intended takes tremendous effort. Today we're diving into the work that makes it all possible and highlighting the many opportunities waiting for you with our guests, Frank Carson and Luis Char. Welcome, Frank and Luis. Let's begin by having each of you explain your roles in the city and how they connect to the work happening in our parks and facilities. Go ahead, Frank. Thank you, John.
SPEAKER_02Like you said, my name is Frank Carson. I'm the director of Parks and Recreation. What I mostly do is oversee the full operations of all the parks and programs and services that go in those parks, as well as the rec centers, pools. A large part of my job is actually training staff. I spend on average over 150 hours a year training staff, just me as the director. That goes from anything from care and shelter operations, being that parks and recreation actually is responsible for evacuation shelters, to training swim instructors and certifying them. To even next weekend, I am training 36 of our hourly staff on leadership because we need them to be our future leaders. Beyond that, we we also coordinate a lot with many departments, such as Public Works, to maintain our grass and other areas, construction and repair, to fix any kind of plumbing issues. And we also work with development services and engineering to build new parks and renovate parks.
SPEAKER_01All right. Go ahead, Luis. All right, hello everyone. My name is Luis Char. I'm the director of engineering capital projects and the city engineer for City of Chula Vista. So in my department, we plan, design, and build infrastructure for the City of Chula Vista. And we do an extensive amount of work with Frank and his team in revitalizing existing parks, building new parks, or adding amenities such as sports lining. So there's a lot of work that we're coordinating. Parks are a constant mainstay in our capital improvement yearly portfolio that we execute. So it's something that we focus on every year. And of course, there's a lot of ongoing coordination with different departments as well.
SPEAKER_03All right, thank you both. Frank, we're going to dive a little deeper into what parks and rec offers the community, both the parks, the open spaces, and the facilities themselves, the buildings that are there, and the programs your department oversees. But first, why is it important for a community to have a strong and engaging parks and rec department?
SPEAKER_02First, uh, parks should be seen as part of a city's broader public safety plan. Uh when you have an active park space, crime decreases by up to 17%. We also, in in that parks and recreation public safety plan, you have swim lessons, and a lot of people wonder why are swim lessons offered through a city government? And when you start looking at the statistics that drowning is the leading cause of death for ages one to four, and the second leading cause of preventable death for under 14, it it fits into a city's public safety plan to teach people water safety and at least basics of swimming.
SPEAKER_03All right. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the different programs, the camps, uh the whole nine yards of what the parks and rec has to offer?
SPEAKER_02Well, we we actually have about 230 hourly staff, and they run the gamut of teaching swim lessons uh to running day camps, to teaching dance, and even teens, running team programs, senior programming. Uh we if for it we have almost programs for almost any interest level, and we are always identifying growing trends such as pickleball and increasing that. Uh, we at our senior center are going to be adding a pickleball league soon, just because there is a growing trend and demand for that as well. Awesome.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. What are some of the more popular camps that uh you find parents signing their kids up for?
SPEAKER_02Right now, I would say probably the most popular is a traditional day camp where they have a field trip. We do have some specialized camps, such as basketball, uh baseball, soccer. Um, and we recently received a grant from the National Recreational Park Association called It's Her Sports. So it's a girl-focused uh getting girls active into sports uh type of camps. So this summer we ran our first It's Her Sports camps, and we were full every every session because we were able to offer those at a lower rate given the grant funding that we had.
SPEAKER_03Now, for the all the activities and the facilities that you offer the programs, is it just for uh families or do organizations get involved?
SPEAKER_02Can can say a company hold an event at one of your We have many, many organizations that nonprofits as well as for-profits that host events in our parks. Uh we have 5Ks offered at Roar Park through other groups as well. Um we also work with many agencies such as the adult learning centers to offer programs for free for our aging population. Um, so we we run the whole gamut of different working with for-profits and nonprofits to collaborate and offer a wide spectrum of programming.
SPEAKER_03All right. And for organizations or families, residents, uh, what's the best uh source for them to find out all that's going on at the parks and how to sign up and get more information?
SPEAKER_02Probably the best way is to go to chulavistaca.gov slash R E C or Rec. Uh you can access our rec guide for the summer summer right now, which our summer program started this week because kids go back to school this week. And that's about an 84-page document of all of our summer offerings that uh you you could spend hours looking in that guide. Awesome. That's great.
SPEAKER_03Now you mentioned there are over 200 staff that you oversee. We have 230 hourly staff. What what kind of teams that is somebody's got to be taking care of what what the uh the greenery looks like, right?
SPEAKER_02Something we've got to take care of the buildings and so that that's actually part of our public works full-time crew, and there's about 39 parks parks uh personnel as well as the park rangers. So Monday through Friday, parks personnel do mow and blow type of where they go out and mow the grass and they pick up the trash, and then on the weekends the park rangers pick up the slack and they clean the bathrooms and pick up the trash on the weekends, so there's a complement between those two working units. Well, that's great.
SPEAKER_03Now, what are some of the challenges these teams uh face, both in keeping the parks running and maintaining our parks so they look as beautiful as they do?
SPEAKER_02It is not easy. Um we are constantly growing as a city, as you know, and trying to keep up with those demands as well as the public demands for more park space, more practice park space for soccer, baseball, softball, and the more we build, it seems like the more demand we have, just because we are growing exponentially. Uh, we are having to reevaluate how we allocate our fields and actually rest, have longer rest periods for the fields so they don't get as torn up. Uh but beyond that, we have uh special interest groups such as pickleball that will constantly want more and more pickleball courts, so it's having to address those needs as well as meet the needs of the broader uh community, whereas nationally we know that we have more tennis players as part of the USTA. But pickleball is the fastest growing sport, so how do you balance both of those?
SPEAKER_03That's that's a good problem to have, I suppose. It being in demand is a very good problem. Yeah, excellent. Uh anything else you'd like residents to know about our parks?
SPEAKER_02I would say I would encourage you to visit your local park andor rec center and get to know the location. Um, the more people we have activate a space, the the more beneficial that space will be to the community. So we need more park guardians. So uh I would say a park guardian is someone like a dog park user where they care a lot about that park, and if something's not right, they will contact me. If you don't see something that you like in a park, definitely contact my office, and we will do our best to remediate that situation.
SPEAKER_03Great, thank you very much. Okay, let's bring Luis into the conversation. Uh Frank's done a great job explaining how Parks and Rec meets the needs of the community. Uh Luis, tell us in more detail how you and your department ensure Parks and Rec continues to fulfill its mission.
SPEAKER_01Sure. So parks are challenging projects, but at the same time, they're one of the ones that provide the most amount, I think, of professional satisfaction because really, once you complete a park, the visible positive impact that they have on the community is evident. Every community is heavily invested in their nearby parks and are vocal to see uh to speak to what amenities they would like to see. And at the beginning of each project, the very first step to do to make sure that we incorporate that is to listen. We understand, we would like to understand what the community needs are for that particular park. And we also need to know what other park and rec staff needs are as well for maintaining that park because it's not just the creation, installation, but also the long-term maintenance and making sure we keep up with the good standing of that park facility. And so we like to uh we also like to look at previously um what type of master plans or other published documents have been adopted to see what's been envisioned for that particular park. That helps us when we start to develop and conceptualize the actual project itself. Because it's not uncommon that at some point either there's not going to be sufficient funding or space to put in all the improvements that everyone would have liked to see. So there is a big discussion that goes into how to best utilize the space that's been given to us to make sure it's the best use for the community once it's complete. And to make it a final successful project, it involves a great deal of coordination and planning. But again, once it's completed, it's always a joyous occasion. The best part of finishing a park is when they have the ribbon cutting and the kids run out to the place structure, and right away it gets us. So there's a lot of visible satisfaction, and you get to see how really like right away is an improvement to the community.
SPEAKER_03That's great. Okay, a hot topic in some Chula Vista neighborhoods and on social media has been the ongoing work at two parks in particular, Hilltop Park and Eucalyptus Park. Both parks located in West Chula Vista have been undergoing major renovations, and we want to take some time to give the community a closer look at the details behind these two very important projects. Let's begin with Hilltop Park. Tell us a little bit about the history of the park, when it was built, and why it was built.
SPEAKER_01Sure. So Hilltop Park is a very unique park. Uh this park resides in a recognized flood zone in the city of Chula Vista. So the primary purpose of this location, ever before it became a park, was to help mitigate the impacts of a large rain event to our residents. However, in the 70s, it was decided, you know, yes, we do have heavy rain events from time to time. And this area includes a channel that moves flow over to the bay, but largely during the better part of the year, it's a large area that's not being utilized. Why not leverage this land for public use? And so at that time it was decided like let's convert this into an open green space or park space for residents to gather, letting their canine friend run around and for relaxing. Now you notice in this park that there's limited elements around the channel, and that's on purpose because there's flooding anticipating in this area. But we do have different gazebos, different kiosks for gathering. So there's multiple uses to this park as a big open green space. But then in the rainy season, when we do have large rain events, it allows for Telegraph Canyon Creek to continue flowing down to the bay.
SPEAKER_03So its primary purpose originally was a flood channel, and so and it serves as a flood channel when it rains, and when it's not raining, it's a park for the people.
SPEAKER_01That's right. A dual purpose location, but largely most of the time of the year, it serves as a park, but every once in a while it helps us with maintaining those large flood uh rain events.
SPEAKER_03All right. So the current renovation, when did this project begin? That's currently going on.
SPEAKER_01Right. So this project started in February of 2025. And however, this project has an earlier history. This particular location was actually part of a larger project that was called the Telegraph Canyon Creek Channel Restoration Project. So this project had several locations as part of the original parent project that tackled different needs along the creek, one of them being the Hilltop site. However, once when the design was complete, we realized there's quite a bit of work that needs to be done up and down the creek. And so we received an updated construction estimate, and we saw that unfortunately we did not have enough funding at the time to take on the large parent project. So it was decided also, because Hilltop does have a dual use, that it makes sense that let's focus on this location first. So the actual component of that larger parent project, that design was carved out and made its into its own project. So we move forward with the improvements located at Hilltop Park. Again, says this location serves as a dual purpose. And the scope of the project really is to armor the slopes along the channel to limit impacts during heavy rain events and restoring it for full park use. Because again, we know that this is a flood zone, and we know that when there's heavy rain events, it does impact the sidewalls of the channel, the grass, the vegetation, and it does take work after those events for the public works team to get it back into its full use by armoring the channel sides of those slopes as we're doing with this project. It's going to limit the amount of time it takes for that park to be in good standing and ready to be used against by the public.
SPEAKER_03And you mentioned armoring the slopes. What exactly does that entail?
SPEAKER_01Sure. So in this case, the scope specifically is there's going to be turf reinforcing mats that are going to be placed underneath the sod on the channel's sidewalls. And what that allows is as you place sod on top of that mat, you have the root system basically tangle itself in the mat itself. And so as you have these heavy flows coming down that channel, it's going to be very difficult for that to pull any type of vegetation out. So the grass is going to be staying in place. So once the heavy rain events pass through, dries out, we should still have a fully functioning park and with limited damage to the sidewalls of that channel.
SPEAKER_03Now, some of the concerns we've seen online have been focused around the tree removal and these rocks or riprap, as as I know you call them.
SPEAKER_01Talk about those two elements. Sure. So as we got into the scoping of the project and analyzing hilltop, we saw that we actually did have some diseased trees. So as part of the project, we did remove those trees, but we are going to be re implanting them in kind. Now there were some trees though that were along the furthest west part of the hilltop renovation project that had to be removed because of the riprap that was placed there. So there's a location along the west side of the park where you have the channel actually take a turn. And at that turn, of course, you have all the water migrating towards that location. The riprap helps dissipate the energy of that water hitting to that location and riprapping the large rocks. Yes, thank you. Thank you for that. Yes, large rocks that help dissipate that energy. So there's a little bit of riprap that's going to be placed permanently at that location. However, some of the things that I think residents have seen also is that there's been a significant amount of the large rocks or riprap placed along the channel itself. And that actually happened because it wasn't part of the original scope. It's because we have a significant rain event that happened in December last year that required us to protect the job site temporarily with additional riprap. That riprap has since been removed largely, and now it's being repurposed, which is great. So we did invest into the additional riprap for this project, but now most of it right now is being used at Roar Park as an energy dissipator where we have a storm-drain outfall. So now we're getting dual use of that rip wrap. So that's been a win-win, I think, both for Hilltop and Roar Park.
SPEAKER_03All right. Now some community members were concerned about the renovation timeline. Why is it taking so long to get the park back in uh shape for us to use, walk our dogs, whatever it is they want to do? Maybe speak to that a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Sure. So whenever you're working in a channel, an active channel, it's very smart to work in it during the dry season. However, sometimes these projects are longer in nature, and then also you do have storm events that are unanticipated. You know, we do have a rainy season, and so typically in these type of projects that are affected by channels or rain, we try to time it to where the work starts when you have the dry season and ends before the rainy season starts, ideally. But sometimes the project scopes are very long in nature and take a little bit of time. In this case, uh we were making progress and then we had our first set of rains in September of 2025. Now, this rain event wasn't as significant as the later event that I'll get into in a second, but it was sufficient enough to then cause a little bit of impacts where the work is taking place because again, we're working in the channel itself. So once you're working in a channel itself, you know, removing the sidewall, sod, grass, and vegetation for the work to take place, you have rain come in, as you can imagine, makes a mess. So it takes a while for the contractor to then be able to quickly restore the site, get back to work. Unfortunately, we had similar rain events both in October and November. So both times it caused that additional delay, additional impact to the project. And so they lose time, there's additional effort, there's additional costs and coordination, and then there's a need for additional materials. So all this takes time. Now, this goes back to what I made, the comment I made earlier, then following the September, October, November, then we had the December 31st rain event that went into the first of January. That rain event was a very significant rain event that impacted City Chula Vista specifically this channel. And that rain event really took out a lot of the vegetation on the sidewalls of our channel and also buckled the existing concrete that we have at the entrance to that channel. Because of that, we had to bring in the riprap in order for us to be able to protect the site and continue work. This impact was so significant that we actually declared an emergency for us to be able to move quickly to procure the additional materials, do the additional design needed, and be able to mitigate the impacts to that site so that the project can continue moving forward. Now, during that period, a strategic decision was made. We've had already several rain events. We don't know if we're gonna get lucky and not have any rain events until we get to the dry season. So there was a conscious decision, we are not gonna do any more work until we get into the dry season again, which meant that while the last impact was in January 1st, we waited until May to resume the project. So basically, from September until May, you had large impacts, you had delays, and it really slowed down the project to a stop. The damage caused by the emergency basically you can add up to around six months of delay to the project. And in addition, because of the fact that we had a declared emergency on the site, we started getting more attention from our regulatory agencies that participate in our projects. Specifically, in this case, the Regional Water Quality Control Board. So before we can get started and resume the scope of the original project, we had to develop a recovery plan that's going to show us how we're going to restore the channel and be able to then mitigate any water quality impacts. The good thing, though, there was that largely the original scope of the hilltop project could serve as a restoration plan. So there was just Minor modifications. But largely as you can see, the impacts and duration, uh schedule impacts, were because of the rain events we experienced.
SPEAKER_03Right. So those unforeseen circumstances contributed to the delay and then the requirements, regulatory requirements. So kind of recap, it's late July now. What does it look like to the end of the year to completion of the project?
SPEAKER_01Right. So at this time, the contractor has installed all the TRM mat or the turf reinforcing mat that I spoke to before, which uh fortifies the slope design or we like to call it armoring. We've been placing the sod above that mat, and we've been making very good progress. And we're basically working west to east on that channel. And so uh we're moving forward and we're getting now to the point where the concrete had buckled, which is the additional impact that happened because of the large rain events. And so now we're we're finalizing our final coordinations with the regional water quality control board and that restoration plan I was talking about. Because once they accept the plan, they issue to us a formal permit. That formal permit is going to allow us to get into that area where the concrete buckled and finish our work. So we anticipate at this time uh to finish our work prior to October so that we can be ready for the next rainy season and hopefully not experience anything significant this year because of the uh El Nino concerns that uh we've been hearing.
SPEAKER_03So if there are no unforeseen circumstances that crop up, uh the park will be fully functional in October?
SPEAKER_01In October this year, the only thing that may be remaining at that time is that there is establishment period for the grass. So there may be some areas that are protected to allow the grass to fully establish. Otherwise, all the other elements of the park should be ready and available.
SPEAKER_03That's great. Thanks for that thorough description. Let's look at Eucalyptus Park. It's the city's oldest park. It opened 100 years ago in 1927. Uh, give us a quick overview of the renovation work taking place there.
SPEAKER_01Sure. So um at 20 acres, this is I think our largest historic park on the west side of Chile Vista. And as you mentioned, it's gonna be turning 100 years in 2027. So there's a lot to celebrate there. I think actually this is gonna be probably one of our longest surviving assets in use for Chile Vista as well. So there's a lot of history. Uh, this park has been used by many generations, place for gatherings, recreational activities. And as you know, the diversity of recreational activities at parks has increased over the last 20 years tremendously. So this went into the conception of what should be the design at this large park that we have. So there's a $17 million investment into this park that started construction in March of 2025. Uh, high level, the improvements of the park will include pickleball courts, as we talked about earlier, skate park, bike park, interactive water features, new playground and surface, ADA access, and of course dog parks as well.
SPEAKER_03That's great. That sounds so fantastic. And a significant amount of work. What is the anticipated completion date for all the renovation?
SPEAKER_01Definitely. There's a lot of great work going on, and currently our schedule shows completion in December of this year. And we think the ribbon cutting for this particular park is gonna be very exciting.
SPEAKER_03That sounds great. Now, if the residents want to know more about both these projects, what's the best place for them to get the information?
SPEAKER_01Sure. So both of these projects have websites, and within those websites, we put updates to the current status of the park, and we also have information of how they can communicate with city staff if they have additional questions. For the Hilltop Park, there's actually project signs along the fence, the exterior fence of the park with QR codes that anyone can scan and it will take you to the project site. Um if you can't visit the project site, you could also go to the City of Chula Vista community voices page. And in that community voices page, there's a specific spotlight on Hilltop, and that's where you can gather all the information. Excellent. And then for Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus doesn't have a QR code sign, but um, same thing, you can go to the City of Chula Vista website, you go into the search bar, you put Eucalyptus Park Renovation Project, and it'll take you right to where all the information is.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so Both of you, that's this is a lot of work going on, a lot of activities. How how is all this work funded?
SPEAKER_01Right, so um the eucalyptus park has multiple fund sources. It's a very large park, again, at 17 million. The big com biggest component of it is a statewide parks grant, uh, which we're very excited to receive that allow us to really move this forward. Of course, also funding from Measure P, the sales tax measure that the citizens voted for, which has been very helpful. And I want to say thank you on behalf of the engineering department. Also, we have ARPA funding, which is another funding source that was available that uh is sunsetting soon, but it's another fund source that's outside the city, bringing in funding for different objectives, and the Sumbo Park Benefit fees, which is another source of that we collect internally for funding. So this all this is uh combined to fund the project itself.
SPEAKER_03And that goes for not just those two parks, but that money is used for all the parks across Chilo Chilabestan.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the grant specifically will be used for this particular project, but Measure P is for many different objectives from all asset types, from paving to storm drains, um, you know, to parks to facilities. So there's a lot of good work being done under that. Um so yeah, we've been very fortunate to receive that funding.
SPEAKER_03Frank, sorry for ignoring you so long. That's okay. But uh what are you looking forward to when both these parks are open, complete, ready for the residents?
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, I I actually um owned and lived about two blocks from Hilltop Park for about 18 years. My kids, my adult children still live there, so I'm excited for them to be able to use a full park again with their dogs going off-leash. Uh regarding eucalyptus park, uh, it's gonna be the first time in Western Chula Vista that we actually have a splash pad. I believe Luis referred to it as an interactive water feature. But this in all the park surveys we've done, the communities really want a place that they can just drop in and splash around with water. So this would be a zero-depth water feature that kids, adults both alike can utilize from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. Uh beyond that, uh, it meets one of our unique niches in the city, or actually in every city across America, where it's pickleball. And we are adding more pickleball courts in Western Chula Vista, especially where the demand just never ceases to amaze me. That's great.
SPEAKER_01Anything else to add, Luis? Sure. Um, so I would first want to give a big thanks to the community for their patience. When it comes to capital improvement projects, parks, any other type of project, at its best, even when things are going well, these parks are disruptive. They're disruptive, they could be noisy, could have traffic buildup at times, could be dusty. But at the end, it's part of the process to get these projects moving forward. So we really like to thank again the community for their patience. And we know for waiting for projects like this, especially one that's going to make, I think, a dramatic improvement to their day-to-day and weekends, isn't easy. We love that level of excitement. Um, so again, we do have a project site with more details about the project and where we share periodic updates. So please don't be shy to reach out and ask for the latest updates. And uh, we're hoping that once we have these ribbon cuttings for these two parks, I will see you out there.
SPEAKER_02So, on opening day at both parks, we'll have a lot of family-friendly activities to reincorporate the park to the community and create better community engagement. We did this when we reopened Harborside Park where we had hand print on the walls. We haven't fully decided what we're gonna do at both Hilltop and Eucalyptus, but it'll be something very much community engaging in that in that both those locations.
SPEAKER_03So the community should look out on our social media and look in the media for any announcements and our community e-newsletter for updates on both these parks and when the opening festivities will take place. That's gonna be great. Thank you again for both being here. And uh to the residents listening, we're glad you took the time to join us on the premier episode of Chula Vista City Cast. We hope you have a better understanding of all the work it takes to keep our city beautiful and create and maintain meaningful spaces that make Chula Vista a great place to live. And a special shout out to our park rangers who help maintain our parks, protect the natural and historical resources, and keep our visitors safe. Be sure to visit our YouTube channel next month to view this program's companion video segment, which will take a closer look at some of the work being done at Hilltop Park. And we'll be back on the air in September with another topic about the city you know and love, Chula Vista.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for joining us for this episode of Chula Vista Citycast. We hope you learned something new about your city and feel a little more connected to the people working behind the scenes every day. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And tune in to next month's CityCast video feature on the city's YouTube channel. And if there's a topic you'd like us to explore, from city services and community stories to public safety or upcoming events, we'd love to hear from you. Just visit the city's website or connect with us on social media by searching at ThinkTula Vista to share your ideas.