What We Lose By Not Doing It Right

This is about Wildomar not having a Master Parks, Recreation and Trails Plan element of our General Plan or even a proper Parks and Recreation Committee. Instead we have what members of the City Council refer to as an Ad Hoc Committee which is in reality a Standing Committee. 
First and for most we lost the ability to collect Quimby Fees from future development. This is already going to cost the city a potential $640,000.00 in parks fees on one development already approved and $155,000.00 on another before the planning commission now. 
By not having a proper Parks and Recreation Committee we do not have a single authority to manage our Parks, Trails, and Open Space for Recreation lands.
We do not have any designation of what a parks is. Is it a Community park, Neighborhood park, Pocket or Mini-Park nor how large each should be, whether they should be passive or active parks, what their service area should be, should we plant grass in light of California’s 20X2020 Water Conservation Plan.
We have very little to speak of in the way of trails or bikeways. Are they are Class I, Class II or Class III, currently have a lot of dreams and some lines on a map.
We are losing out on valuable community input, which includes inquisitive minds to research grants available from Federal and State Programs such as The United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation WasterSmart Grants. Department of Transportation Federal Highways Administration Recreational Trails Program, National Scenic Byways Program and thousands of other available grants. These all take time to research and without an enormous staff is going to require community involvement. These grants also require a primary responsible party for granting agencies to be in contact with. Some will say it’s the city manager but he is one person with many hats already. 
Some in this community have said that Wildomar is a young city and should be given time to get it together. Parks and Trails have supposedly been a top priority since the Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) was formed back in 1989 of which some former members are still with us today. What all this has brought us is Ortega Trail which asked for 3 tax increases in 8 years, a now defunct organization that was self serving, a half baked Lighting and Maintenance District (LMD 2006-1) which the courts ruled illegal, a new parcel tax with “Oversight”, and for the last 5 years we have had a Standing Committee that meets in secret.
How much more time do we have to give those “in charge” before the community stands up and says enough. Maybe the next time the powers that be ask for a new tax to pay for the new parkland to be developed will be the tipping point. 
Source for calculating Quimby Fees lost: http://www.cityofwildomar.org/uploads/files/finance/Wildomar%20DIF%20Watermark%20Draft%204_20_12.pdf 
Info on Bureau of Reclamation Grants http://www.usbr.gov/WaterSMART/weeg/index.html   http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/water_issues/hot_topics/20x2020/  California Legislation regarding Water Conservation.