Clocks fall back on Sunday, November 1. When the after-work walk on the paved path between Wolf Creek and Pechanga Parkway moves into the dark, whose money will light it?
The City of Temecula's budget sheet for the Great Oak Trail Lighting project lists two funding sources. The larger one is a landscape maintenance zone that covers the Wolf Creek tracts. Measure S, the citywide sales tax, covers the smaller share.
Lit at both ends, dark in between
The Great Oak Trail is a 1.8-mile paved connector that runs along Wolf Creek in southern Temecula, with 101 feet of elevation change. Bike Temecula Valley, the local cycling coalition, describes it as fully separated from traffic, running from Patricia H. Birdsall Sports Park at one end to Friendship Park at the other. Visit Temecula Valley lists it as a Class I trail and notes that Wolf Creek Park can be reached from it.
Both endpoints already have lights. The City's page for Patricia H. Birdsall Sports Park lists four lighted ball fields, four lighted basketball courts and four lighted synthetic-turf soccer fields. Friendship Park has a lighted football and soccer field.
The stretch between them has none. On a November evening, you can leave a lit field at Birdsall and walk more than a mile and a half beside Pechanga Parkway before reaching the next lit field at Friendship Park.
The new project targets exactly that gap. The lights will run along the northeast side of Pechanga Parkway from Deer Hollow Way to Loma Linda Road. The City puts that distance at about 1.70 miles, or 8,976 feet, which covers nearly the whole trail.
What the City Council approved on September 22
The project moved quickly this summer. According to Valley News, the City Council authorized the bid process on July 14. The City advertised the job for bids from July 16 to August 13, 2026.
Valley News reported that the council voted 5-0 on September 22 to award a $227,000 contract to Vido Samarzich, Inc., a Santa Ana company. The contract covers 75 solar-powered lights. The council also authorized the city manager to approve change orders totaling up to $75,000.
By Valley News's figures, the contract works out to about $3,000 per installed light along a trail more than a mile and a half long.
Two details in the City's own records differ from the newspaper's account. The City's Citywide Projects Status page still describes the pre-vote stage: it lists 76 solar lights and says staff "will recommend" a contract with Earthscapes for $260,348. Valley News's report describes the vote itself, while the City page's wording still looks ahead to that meeting.
The council also found that the project qualifies as a safety improvement. According to Valley News, that finding exempts it from Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan fees. The City's budget sheet had set aside $32,750 for those fees. The City's own stated purpose for the project is that it "improves pedestrian and biking experience and enhances safety along the subject trail," filed under its core value of "A Safe and Prepared Community."
Most of the money comes from Wolf Creek
The City's Fiscal Years 2026-30 Capital Improvement Program sheet for the project shows where the money comes from:
Funding source | Amount | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
Service Level C, Zone 28 | $500,000 | about 59% |
Measure S | $352,808 | about 41% |
Total project funding | $852,808 | 100% |
The total is much larger than the $227,000 contract because the budget also covers administration, design and environmental work, and construction engineering.
The larger line is the one that matters here. Service Level C is a Temecula Community Services District charge that pays for perimeter landscaping and the upkeep of landscaped areas and slopes in public rights-of-way tied to specific housing tracts. It's charged per residential lot. The district's 2012/13 engineer's report lists the tracts in Zone 28. They include the Wolf Creek tract series, numbered 29798, plus tract groups 30264, 31898, 32319, 33124 and 33125.
So the money lighting this stretch of Pechanga Parkway comes largely from a zone made up of the homes next to it. The rest comes from Measure S. Temecula voters approved that tax on November 8, 2016, by 19,711 votes to 18,935, or 51.00 percent to 49.00 percent, according to Riverside County's final official results. That margin was 776 votes. The City describes Measure S as a one-cent transactions and use tax. Its stated uses include 9-1-1 response, police, fire and paramedic protection, traffic improvements and other general services, as laid out in the City's FY2025-26 second-quarter financial report.
The funding split has a practical side for Wolf Creek households. The local zone carries the larger share, so how the Zone 28 fund gets used, and what else it's expected to cover, connects directly to this trail. This post reports what the City's published budget documents show. It isn't tax or financial advice. If you have questions about your own property's assessments, check the details on your tax bill with the City or a qualified professional.
Approved, funded, and not yet on the calendar
The CIP sheet says the project was in design, with construction "anticipated in FY2025-26." That fiscal year ended on June 30, 2026, before the City advertised for bids. Neither the budget sheet nor the City's project status page gives a start or finish date for the work.
The lights aren't up yet, and the next several weeks will have the earliest sunsets of the year. For now, the trail's lit areas are where they've always been, at the two parks at either end. The courts and fields at Birdsall and the field at Friendship Park are the only City-listed lighting along this route until the solar fixtures go in along Pechanga Parkway.
The project page at temeculaca.gov, listed as Bike and Trail Program, Great Oak Trail Lighting, PW21-16, is the place to watch. Once construction is scheduled, an update there will most likely be the first public sign.
If you're wondering how local assessments, trail projects and other neighborhood improvements come into play when you sell or buy in Wolf Creek, at Your Home Selling Pros, David Limon and Maurice Johnson can walk you through what we see locally, in English or Spanish, so you can plan with clear facts. Contact Us when you're ready to talk.
