Eastvale OK to turn dairy into downtown

Talk about makeovers: A 12-year-old city in northwest Riverside County plans to turn a dairy farm into its downtown.

The Eastvale City Council has approved a revised plan to fashion a 158-acre downtown out of a former dairy farm bounded by 58th Street, Hamner Avenue, Limonite Avenue and Scholar Way, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported.

The New Home Company, based in Irvine, is set to begin grading the mixed-use downtown and civic center this summer and break ground on the project next year. The downtown project is expected to take seven to 10 years to complete.

Plans call for a new city hall, library, police and fire stations and parks, plus nearly 600,000 square feet of offices, shops and restaurants and 2,500 homes to serve a city of 74,000 people.

“The Downtown project presents a long overdue missing part of the heart of the city,” Omar Dandashi, who has lived in Eastvale since it was incorporated, said in an email message to the council. “We need a place that brings community together, a place that is designed around the pedestrian experience, a place that we can call our own.”

Revised plans for a 52-acre section northwest of Limonite and Hamner include 595,000 square feet of commercial development, 660 apartments and a civic center with a city hall, police station and library.

An 87-acre residential neighborhood along Scholar Way and 58th Street will include 1,840 homes, ranging from single-family standalone houses to townhomes to apartments.

The new downtown will also include 14 acres of parks and open space, plus a fire station on the southeast corner of Scholar and 58th.

Planning Manager Gus Gonzalez said the 2,500-home residential component will help Eastvale comply with its state-mandated target of providing more than 3,000 residential units by 2030.

Mayor Pro Tem Todd Rigby said he looks forward to having a modern city hall and the council no longer having to conduct business in a storefront. Other elected officials were excited about a new library. And enough commercial space to fit as many as 70 Lazy Dog restaurants.

Are we really finally here after all these years of talking about it?” asked Council Member Christian Dinco on the night of the downtown vote. “This is an exciting night.”

Eastvale, a 13.1 square-mile city incorporated in 2010, once consisted of mostly farms and dairies. It is surrounded by Chino, Ontario, Norco, Corona and the newly incorporated City of Jurupa Valley.

[Riverside Press-Enterprise] – Dana Bartholomew

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