A new Palomar Medical Center West being built at the Escondido Research and Technology Center will include a $600 million, 450-bed hospital.

It’s mid-January and rain is in the forecast for San Diego County — not good news for Jenny Peterson, communications officer for the city of Vista. For years, employees at Vista’s City Hall — a former middle school built in 1956 — have had to contend with working in an old, rundown building.

“We’re all cringing because it’s going to rain and we’re worried the roof is going to leak,” Peterson said. “It’s not appropriate conditions to operate in.”

There is, however, a rainbow on the horizon — a new, $40 million civic center and city hall.

Proposition L, a half-cent sales tax approved by Vista voters in November, funds the center, still in the design stages

City officials estimate the increase will boost the city’s general fund by $6 million the first year, with annual increases of 3 percent.

The city could receive an estimated $6 million a year for the next 30 years from the tax increase.

Vista recently accepted proposals from architectural engineering and design firms for the state-of-the-art center, two of which are based in San Diego — Carrier Johnson and Ferguson Pape Baldwin.

Construction is scheduled to begin in April 2008, with an opening scheduled for 2010.

The civic center is just one of several projects expected to dramatically transform Vista’s economic development in the coming years, Peterson said.

A $5 million stage house at the Moonlight Amphitheater is planned, as is a $15 million sports park, and two fire stations, totaling $13 million, all funded by Proposition L.

“All these projects will create a solid foundation for the community,” Peterson said. “Residents will not only have a safe place to live but … a beautiful new city park, and the stage house at Moonlight Amphitheater will provide a new level of the arts in the community that Vista has never seen before.

“I believe these projects will bring Vista into a new era and bring a sense of pride for our citizens and a level of service that they haven’t experienced yet.”