BEHIND THE HEADLINES - Jana Ransom, Costa Mesa recreation manager:City needs to find more space for athletic fields

Paularino Park in Costa Mesa has become a source of controversy as neighbors say they don’t want this small, passive park used for active sports, like soccer. We caught up, via e-mail, with Jana Ransom, the city’s recreation manager.

How do you balance the adult and youth recreation needs with the needs and concerns of neighborhoods near parks?

In Costa Mesa, many of the parks (50%) were designed to be “neighborhood parks” — ones that are within a quarter-mile of residences. Only one neighborhood park, Smallwood, has a specifically dedicated athletic field. So we have to partner with the school district to meet the field needs of our residents. The adult and older-youth population is more transient, so their use can be directed to larger facilities, even to regional ones outside the city. But for kids, we need to provide opportunities for positive uses of leisure time in their own neighborhoods and at their schools. So if we look at the city, we can identify those areas that do not have athletic fields in the park (most of them) and we will then offer either a playground program or bring our mobile recreation truck in to serve the active needs of the kids.

So why don’t we use the parks? In most cases, the neighborhood’s school has more room to play, and it is a pretty secure environment. Neighborhood parks may have an open meadow, may have a play area with play structures and may have picnic tables or basketball courts. None of these elements is really designed for more than about 10 people to use. The city plans the design of those parks for small-group play, but not for full-on games.

Do you believe there is a problem at Paularino Park, specifically, that needs to be addressed?

If residents perceive a problem, it really doesn’t matter what I think. If you were to ask me if I think it is OK for adults and older teens to play a pick-up soccer game through the trees and over the walkways at Paularino Park, I would say no. If you were to then ask if it would be OK for a bunch of 10- to 12-year-old kids to play soccer in that park, I would probably be more likely to say that I don’t think that is a problem — unless they were routinely interfering with other people’s use of the other park amenities.

In your opinion, is there a good balance in Costa Mesa of active and passive parks?

I don’t think our park system is balanced. We have very few Eastside parks — and none of the parks east of the 55 Freeway have fields. We are fortunate to have a school district that is willing to provide space for after-school programs and for organized sports.

I think the city needs more athletic-field space.

How do you plan to survey the neighborhoods for feedback? Are you going to have town hall meetings?

The City Council requested that the parks and recreation commissioners walk every park in the city with staffers. After the walk-throughs, I believe council members will be able to decide what they would like to do.

A report will be presented at a parks and recreation commission meeting at which public comment will be accepted. The commission may schedule a study session before that report.

One thing I should note is that the staff is going to recommend that Paularino Park be our “beta” site — that we do signage and make several landscape element changes to reflect the desires of the neighbors who attended the meeting last Wednesday night and evaluate the effectiveness of that effort after three and six months. If we find there are still issues, we will meet again to see what else the city can do.