A great exchange this evening with my FB bud Jeff Byrne re: athletic field needs in Costa Mesa. Worth sharing: Jeff Byrne: Can some one enlighten me? What sports and ages are needing more field space? Is there something preventing us from using the space we have more efficiently ie lights and or turf? Have partenrships with coastline been explored? I drive around cm and I dont see packed sports fields.. mostly I see empty fields that are packed only a few days a week. Im a lil late to the party on this issue. Byron de Arakal: Jeff - Its the organized youth sports groups (6 to 19) who need the field space the most. Costa Mesa OWNS only three facilities that are used for organized youth sports: Jack Hammett (formerly The Farm), Tewinkle Park and Luke Davis. All other facilities we use are owned by the school district and their use is governed by the Costa Mesa-NMUSD Joint Use Agreement. Sans that agreement, wed really be screwed. We also have an agreement with the State to use the Fairview Developmental Center. That being said, were generally OK on field inventory during daily light savings time (March through November). However, its during non-daily savings time months when we really suffer. We lose 60% of our field inventory for lack of lighting. We permit about 6.5 years worth of hours every calendar year on about 67 fields. Only 11 of those fields (6 at Hammett, four at Tewinkle Park, and 1 at Luke Davis Field) are on city-owned property. Youre seeing empty field space during the day for three reasons: 1) During the school year, school facilities that we permit are reserved - obviously - for school use. We get access to them after school hours. 2) Parents who coach or volunteer in some other capacity work during the day, and so practices necessarily occur in the evening (generally 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.). 3) There are mandated rest and renovation periods on all the fields we permit to allow time for the turf to recover from the heavy use they receive. Really, the need is for lighted space. I am committed to the citys purchase of Balearic Park (north of Adams Avenue) which is currently school district property that we lease. The district has said it is willing to sell the property to us under a lease-purchase agreement. That would pave the way for the city to make capital improvements on the land, as wed eventually own it. That means artificial turf and permanent lighting. Also, the Parks and Recreation Commission added several facilities on the eastside to the Field Use and Allocation Policy that are now permitted for portable lighting. They include Kaiser, Lindberg, Back Bay, and Woodland. But portable lighting is less than ideal and only a temporary solution. Lastly, the council allocated money in this years budget for permanent lighting feasibility studies at Parsons, Estancia High School, Kaiser and Balearic. Were making progress, but we have a long way to go. The challenge is NIMBY attitudes. When you talk about putting lights at neighborhood parks and schools, the nearby residents routinely - and vehemently - protest. The other challenge is shortsightedness. Many who object to additional lighted fields say the citys current demographics dont indicate the need for more space. Beyond that being untrue, they fail to consider the long term; that is, that in 10 years the demographic will shift and - with new housing developments - well see a shift to a younger population. My goal, as chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission, is to acquire more property for park space (Balearic) and make the necessary capital improvements to provide more facilities. These improvements should include the installation of artificial turf to allow for year round use, and the installation of permanent lighting. Hope that helps.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 03:26:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015