CINA calls for park funding

An updated Capital Improvement Needs Assessment for the Coun­ty of San Diego was approved by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

The supervisors’ 5-0 vote March 16 approved the CINA, which re­flects the county’s facilities needs. The approval of the needs assess­ment itself did not include funding for projects on the list, although the supervisors also directed Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer to determine timing and funding mechanisms to implement the individual projects. Hearings on the county’s 2021-22 budget with public input are scheduled for June 14-23 with budget de­liberation and adoption taking place June 29 in the absence of delays.

“The CINA is a planning document,” said Marko Medved, the director of the county’s Department of General Services. “It is not a financial document and has no financial impact.”

The updated needs assessment covers facilities projects slated for improvement between Fiscal Year 2021-22 and Fiscal Year 2025-26. The five-year plan includes an estimated $1.27 billion of unfunded or partially-funded projects. The planned 2021-22 expenditures total $245.9 million.

“The CINA drives a robust county construction program,” Medved said.

The capital planning process which includes the CINA focuses on facilities, so road projects are not included on the capital im­provements list. The county’s Airport Enterprise Fund is derived from lease rent from businesses on County Airports land, so air­port projects are not part of the CINA list.

A Facilities Planning Board prioritizes projects based on criteria including benefits and linkage to the county’s strategic plan. Additional projects which have been identified but which require further analysis to define their scope will be brought to the Board of Supervisors in the fu­ture for addition onto the CINA program list.

Board of Supervisors Policy G-16, which addresses capital facilities and planning, was origi­nally approved in 1997. When the county supervisors approved the five-year CINA plan last year Pol­icy G-16 was modified to identify separate pre-construction and construction phases. Funding may be recommended primar­ily for pre-construction, which includes identifying and acquir­ing a site, with the project being recommended for construction after the pre-construction phase is complete.

Department of Parks and Rec­reation director Brian Albright noted that 75 of the 99 projects on the CINA list involve parks. “The plan for parks is balanced to ensure we have opportunities to complete a large amount of proj­ects each year,” Albright said.