Chula Vista council names new Otay Ranch park after Filipino American veterans

The Chula Vista City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the master plan for a 5.5-acre neighborhood park in Otay Ranch Village 8 West and name it Filipino American Veterans Park, marking the city’s first public space dedicated specifically to its Filipino American community.

Mayor John McCann said the name originated from Filipino organizations and residents who sought recognition for veterans and their families.

“The patriotic history of the Filipino American community has been so strong,” McCann said. “Tonight, we have made history.”

The meeting drew a large, mostly Filipino American crowd — many of them veterans — who filled the council chambers to show support for the project. Among them was Oscar Sanchez-Garcia, a 28-year U.S. Navy veteran and longtime Chula Vista resident, who called the naming “the most appropriate way” to honor those who served.

“I stand here before you … to manifest my sincere and strongest possible support for the approval of the building of a new park named Filipino American Veterans Park,” he said, echoing dozens of others who urged the council to pick the adopted name rather than the alternative, Bayani Park.

Bayani is a Tagalog word meaning hero. But Simeon Silverio, former publisher of the San Diego Asian Journal, said Bayani reflects only one of many Filipino dialects and would fail to represent the country’s diverse cultural groups, each of which has its own word for hero.

“Hence, if you are to name the park Bayani Park, you are only honoring a small portion of the Filipino people, you are not honoring the majority of the Filipino people,” Silverio said.

Deliberation briefly turned contentious when Councilmember Michael Inzunza, who represents the district where the park will be built, proposed redirecting the effort toward a larger, regional park before ultimately joining the majority.

He cited a letter signed by several Filipino American community leaders, including Chula Vista Fire Department Battalion Chief Sean Lowery and former Eastlake High School Principal Ricardo Cooke, asking the city to consider a park that could host annual festivals and honor a broader range of contributions beyond military service.

“I am absolutely supporting, acknowledging our Filipino veterans,” he said. “I am trying to go beyond what you are all asking for.”

Inzunza said the park proposal had been “rushed,” noting he first learned about it 10 days before the meeting despite having spoken with thousands of residents during his campaign, including many Filipino Americans. “If we’re going to acknowledge the Filipino community, why not go bigger?” he said. “If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right.”

Speaking after the vote, Inzunza said the proposed park is a neighborhood park and he would have liked to have seen a larger community park honoring the Filipino American community.

“There’s a difference between what we call neighborhood parks and community parks,” Inzunza said, noting the approved site has only 16 parking stalls and two handicap spots. “This park is going to be run by the (Cota Vera neighborhood) HOA, not by the city, and it’s tiny.”

McCann responded to Inzunza’s proposal by stressing that the park’s development had been underway for three years and that extensive public outreach had already taken place. He said the process included open meetings with community organizations and had been discussed “multiple times at the City Council meetings” and “in the media.”

“We have a tangible park with funding, design and location, and to change course now would be devastating,” he said.

Inzunza called for a vote on his motion to explore creating a larger, citywide Filipino heritage park that could host major cultural events and incorporate the planned veterans monument and design elements, but the motion failed because it did not get a second.

Councilmember Jose Preciado supported moving forward with the funded project, describing it as the culmination of years of effort, while Councilmember Cesar Fernandez raised questions about whether the naming process aligned with the city’s recently adopted policy on naming public assets.

McCann cautioned against restarting the naming process under the new policy, arguing that doing so would “change the rules” and cause further delays.

“The developer, HomeFed, the community of Cota Vera, and the Filipino community went through that process, which existed at that time,” McCann said. “So having a new process … after a three-year process of waiting to be able to finally finalize this project would only delay it again.”

The policy, adopted about six weeks earlier, was designed to limit political influence over the naming of parks and city assets, Inzunza said.

Inzunza said after the vote that his intention was not to oppose the project but to think bigger. “I wanted to go big — go big or go home,” he said. “At the end of the day, of course, I’m going to support the park because I do want to honor our Filipino veterans.”

During her presentation, Laura Handschumacher, a landscape architect with the city’s development services department, described the park’s location and amenities, noting that the 5.5-acre site at La Media Parkway and Avenida Caprice will include recreational facilities and a monument honoring Filipino American veterans for their service to the Chula Vista community.

Public commenters emphasized that the park would serve as both a tribute and an educational space. Delia Dominguez Cervantes spoke of her late brother-in-law, a Filipino veteran of three wars.

“Having a park named Filipino American Veterans Park also invites learning about the culture for some who may not be Filipino,” she said.

The park will include basketball, pickleball and bocce courts, a playground, and a veterans monument designed in collaboration with the Filipino American Veterans Association. Construction documents are expected to be completed within six to seven months, and city staff estimated the park could be built within a year.