Oceanside Mayor Peter Weiss recently confirmed the city will soon consider a plan to turn part of a 90-acre site that formerly hosted a weekly swap meet into a wave pool. Photo: Google Earth
The city of Oceanside may soon consider a proposal that would develop a portion of a 90-acre site that formerly hosted the Oceanside Swap Meet into a wave pool. According to the San Diego Reader, Oceanside Mayor Peter Weiss confirmed the news on Friday saying the property developers planned to present their preliminary plans to the Oceanside city council later this month.
For over a decade, the Oceanside Swap Meet site was long thought as the ideal location for a new stadium for the then-San Diego Chargers. That of course never came to fruition.
Now, Zephyr Partners, an Encinitas-based developer that purchased the site in 2018 for an undisclosed sum, is reportedly aiming to construct San Diego’s first public surf park there.
Weiss told the San Diego Reader that he was recently made aware of Zephyr’s plans to devote 35 acres of the site to a wave pool, accompanying restaurants, and “businesses and hotel rooms that would all be aimed at the surf culture.” According to Weiss, Zephyr is currently in talks with two different artificial wave technology companies, but rumors are Wavegarden’s Cove tech is the current frontrunner.
As of late last year, Zephyr’s plans for the site were to construct 19 commercial buildings and 4,000 parking spaces, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. In November, the company filed for a two-year extension to its 10-year-old permits to develop the site.
“Zephyr prides itself on being a leader in the change department,” Zephyr Chief Operating Officer Chris Beucler told the Union-Tribune after a November 2018 Oceanside Planning Commission meeting in which the extension was approved. “We’ll make something happen.”
Zephyr’s past projects include residential and mixed-use developments. This would be the company’s first wave pool.
