Temecula Paves Way For New Regional Sports Park On Jefferson Ave.

TEMECULA, CA — It's very early, and it may never happen, but a regional sports park along Jefferson Avenue is being eyed by the city of Temecula.

On Wednesday, the Temecula Planning Commission gave a unanimous green light to a proposed amendment to the city's 2022-26 Capital Improvement Program that includes five new projects, including the Murrieta Creek Regional Sports Park that would sit on vacant land adjacent to Cherry Street and Jefferson, across from the FedEx Shipping Center.

^The park would be situated off Jefferson Avenue, between Cherry Street and Winchester Road, across from Sanborn Avenue.

The project is far from being built, but the Planning Commission's March 16 approval of the proposed amendment gets the projects — including the park — into Temecula’s General Plan.

In addition to planning, budgeting, design, public hearings, etc., the park would need to go through the environmental review process — and traffic would be an issue. Jefferson Avenue has long been used as an alternative route when Interstate 15 is slow or at a standstill, and regional parks are popular destinations for sports events, large family gatherings, and other functions that bring high-volume weekend traffic.

The city added the park and the four other projects to its 2022-26 Capital Improvement Program as a result of a surplus in the budget, according to city staff. The other projects include the demolition and rebuild of the skate park at Ronald Reagan Sports Park; the rehab of the hockey rink at Ronald Reagan Sports Park; a shade structure at the Ronald Reagan Sports Park pump track; and a citywide fiber-optic communications system.

During Wednesday night's Temecula Planning Commission meeting, Commissioner John H. Telesio was absent.

Related: Last month, Temecula celebrated the opening of the 22-acre Sommers Bend Ranch sports park. Read more here.