Two new grass multipurpose fields, the first added in decades, are closer to opening in Rancho Bernardo Community Park.
On May 22, workers were installing sod in the roughly 35,000-square-foot fenced-in area, which is divided in half to form two smaller fields separated by an existing sidewalk that runs between them.
The space is not likely to open until perhaps mid-July, said Mark Moncey, a San Diego Parks and Recreation area manager who was on-site while the crew installed the sod.
Two new drinking fountains and a new irrigation system have been installed. Several existing benches are getting repainted, he said.
The existing fence will remain, but the gate will be removed, Moncey said. The gate is there until work concludes and the sod has had time to get established. He estimated that could take 30 to 45 days, which means people must stay off of it until then.
The city-owned 38-acre park along West Bernardo Drive has eight sports fields and the new section adds two small fields for a variety of sports and other activities. It replaces a lawn bowling green that has been closed for a decade.
In December 2023, the Rancho Bernardo Community Recreation Group voted to recommend the space be turned into a grass field even though Ed Brown Center for Active Adults representatives had proposed 16 pickleball courts that the center wanted to run to raise operating funds. The Brown Center would have funded the court construction.
The city was scheduled to complete the grass conversion early last year, but the designated city money was diverted after flooding in the southern part of San Diego in January 2024.
With the grass field project stalled, Brown Center representatives made a second attempt to get the space adjacent to their center for the pickleball courts. But when about 80 ers filled the rec group’s meeting last September, they learned that new funding had been secured — donated anonymously by a Rancho Bernardo resident on Aug. 21 specifically for the grass field conversion project.
The $250,000 donation, enough to fully-fund the project, was secured through the San Diego Parks Foundation, Moncey told meeting attendees.
Leona Sublett, San Diego Parks Foundation president and CEO, confirmed with the Rancho Bernardo News Journal that her organization received the donation on Aug. 21. As of last September there had been no discussion between the foundation and donor about naming rights in exchange for the $250,000 gift, Sublett said.
