RIVERSIDE - A portion of Weirick Road will be renamed Dos Lagos Drive, county supervisors decided Tuesday in response to a request from the developer of Dos Lagos, a shopping and residential complex being built at the southern edge of Corona.
The new name will apply only to a one-third-mile section of Weirick Road east of Interstate 15, between the freeway and Temescal Canyon Road. The Weirick name will remain on the stretch of road west of the freeway in Temescal Valley.
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors, with member Jeff Stone absent, voted 4-0 in favor of the name change request after watching a prerecorded video from Jane Larson, the daughter of Arthur Weirick, for whom the road was named.
Weirick was a county supervisor from 1946 to 1949. Larson, a Corona resident, gave her blessing to the name-change request submitted last August by SE Corp., the Corona-based developer of Dos Lagos.
"This gentleman was certainly an important figure," Supervisor Bob Buster said during a public hearing on the proposal. By video, Larson, 79, told of her father's exploits as a World War I pilot who was shot down by German forces behind enemy lines, captured and held prisoner. She said she still has his military uniform, with a bullet hole in the shoulder.
Weirick served on the Western Municipal Water District board of directors from 1960 to 1972. The district now serves 22,000 customers in Corona, Norco, Riverside and other communities in a 510-square-mile jurisdiction.
The Dos Lagos Drive signs will be installed on the road within the next eight weeks, said Deniene Husted, a spokeswoman for SE Corp. Because Weirick also is an entrance and exit point to Interstate 15, the signage must be changed on the freeway as well.
SE Corp. will pay the costs -- estimated at $18,000 to $22,000 -- of fabricating and installing the new signs, Husted said.
Weirick died in 1972 at age 78. At Larson's request, SE Corp. will install a plaque in his honor at Dos Lagos -- possibly next to the twin lakes that give the project its name.
Buster said that since there's so much growth in the Temescal Valley, part of his 1st District, the county should look for a prominent spot to perpetuate Weirick's name.
"Maybe we can find another road, or a new road, to name after him," the supervisor suggested.
Earl Warren, California's governor at the time, appointed Weirick to fill the board seat left vacant when Riverside County Supervisor Clarence Steves resigned in 1946. Weirick ran to retain his 1st District seat, but was defeated by William Jones in the 1948 election and left office in January 1949, said county Librarian Nancy Johnson.
Weirick Road is the southern boundary of Dos Lagos, a 543-acre master-planned community -- also bordered by Temescal Canyon Road and Interstate 15 -- that eventually will include a hotel, senior housing, office buildings and live-work townhomes.
The Promenade Shops at Dos Lagos, an open-air collection of restaurants and upscale stores, opened in October. The complex added a 15-screen Krikorian Theatres in December.
Weirick apparently started the tradition of camel races at the Riverside County Date Festival, said Louise Mazochi, who works as a community relations consultant for SE Corp.
In 1943, Weirick and his wife Margaret purchased a ranch in Corona, where they grew avocadoes and naval oranges. Its location was several miles northwest of the street named in his honor.
Reach Mary Bender at 951-893-2103 or mbender@PE.com
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