This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE

At the last standing committee for parks and recreation presentation mention was made of the County of Riverside transferring 27 acres of Parkland east of the 15 freeway along with $300,000.00 in unspent Quimby Fees collected by the county. What was not mentioned in the presentation was the line found on page 26 of the package.“ $300,000.00 of the park fees will be transferred to the City of Wildomar to be used for the construction of a decomposed granite trail within La Estrella Park”
Two things of interest here are 1. Why did the County of Riverside designate what the money would be spent on. 2. How did the County get to name this park.
As to item 1. The County of Riverside designated the money was to be spent on a decomposed trail because under the Quimby Act California Government Code Section 66477 a(6) The city, county, or other local public agency to which the land or fees are conveyed or paid shall develop a schedule specifying how, when, and where it will use the land or fees, or both, to develop park or recreational facilities to serve the residents of the subdivision. Any fees collected under the ordinance shall be committed within five years after the payment of the fees or the issuance of building permits on one-half of the lots created by the subdivision, whichever occurs later. If the fees are not committed, they, without any deductions, shall be distributed and paid to the then record owners of the subdivision in the same proportion that the size of their lot bears to the total area of all lots within the subdivision.
This money was collected more than 5 years ago and had to be committed to a project. What was also not said is this is the last Quimby money the city will see until such time as the City of Wildomar adopts a Master Plan for Parks and Recreation Element of the General Plan which the city does not appear to be in a hurry to do, in the mean time the city is approving  developments left and right only collecting $418.50 per unit rather than a Quimby Fee of $2,325.00 per unit as recommended by the Developer Impact Fee Study. They are also allowing these developments to build PRIVATE parks and trails within these communities for the exclusive use of the new homeowners which will include no sports fields which means they get to use Wildomars parks but Wildomar cannot use their parks. 
2. La Estrella park, were the citizens of Wildomar asked for input on the name of this park. Granted La Estrella Street borders this park but so does Porras Rd.

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