New public park planned for Carmel Valley area

By Karen Billing

A new public park is currently on the drawing table for the Torrey Hills community, now named Ocean View Park. The one-acre park comes with the new 384-unit Garden Communities, now under construction on Calle Mar de Mariposa and East Ocean Air Drive.

According to project manager Dee Snow, Ocean View is very early on in the design process and they do not have a schedule for completion yet.

She said they aim for Ocean View to be a passive use park for both the apartment residents and the community.

“It will have a play area for children but the primary focus is the lookout, that’s why it’s called Ocean View,” said Snow. “It has a vantage point where you can see the ocean.”

Snow said there are tentative plans for the park to include a walking path and work-out stations.

In addition to the 384 apartment units and the park, the Garden Communities development will also include 4,000 square feet of retail, likely four “neighborhood service” tenants yet to be determined, such as a coffee shop or dry cleaners.

The construction of the project’s underground garages has been completed and the framing on the buildings just started last week. Snow could not give any firm completion timelines for the park or when the first residents might move in but told the Torrey Hills Community Planning Board a possible completion date for the entire project could be 2016.