Report: County Has $500M in Unfunded, Partially Funded Capital Improvement Projects

San Diego County has almost a half-billion dollars in unfunded or partially funded capital improvement projects, according to a report approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

The Capital Improvement Needs Assessment through fiscal year 2017 ranked a new $100 million regional communications system as a top priority. Upgrades are scheduled to take place over the next two years.

The report also called for a $37 million, 400-bed expansion of the East Mesa Detention Facility to house non-violent inmates as a result of Gov. Jerry Brown's realignment of prisons and jails; $25 million to create sports fields in the Tijuana River Valley; $23.8 million to develop a recreation center in the Otay Valley; $16.5 million to build a 350-seat supervisors' chambers at the County Administration Center; $10.3 million for a new library in Alpine; and $10 million annually to acquire about 12,000 acres of open space land.

Documents also listed a number of smaller projects expected to cost less than $10 million.

About $572.8 million of projects are currently funded and approved, and another $22.3 million of work had been completed, according to the report.

The supervisors voted to approve the report without comments, refer it to staff to schedule and fund the individual projects listed in the report.

The supervisors also voted to authorize advertisement and award a design- build contract for a fire station in Boulevard.

"This is a community that's been long in need of a new fire station," said Supervisor Dianne Jacob. She said the station would "provide the long- term fire protection needs of the Boulevard community and continue to demonstrate this county's continual commitment to increased fire protection and emergency medical services throughout the unincorporated area of this region."

-City News Service