HUNTINGTON BEACH : Election Postponed on Sports Complex

The City Council has postponed for at least a year a ballot proposal to ask voters whether a 26-acre sports complex should be built in Huntington Central Park.

The ballot measure, which had been tentatively scheduled for a special election this June, will likely go before the voters at the June, 1992, General Election, said Ron Hagan, the city’s community services director. At Hagan’s request, council members delayed a vote on the proposal to set up a community task force to further study the plan.

A citywide vote on the project is required under the provisions of Measure C, a City Charter amendment voters approved last November. That law forbids the city to sell or lease its beaches or parkland without voter approval.

As proposed, the complex would include a 20-acre area of overlapping youth sports fields to be located west of Golden West Street at Talbert Avenue. Preliminary plans call for six baseball diamonds, five soccer fields and three football fields, some of which would be lighted.

A six-acre indoor sports complex is proposed south of the fields. That portion of the project is planned to include a gymnasium, Olympic-size swimming pool and a gymnastic facility.

City officials have yet to determine the cost, but Hagan estimates the entire complex may exceed $3.5 million.

Council members believe that by allowing more time to study the proposal, the city can better devise a plan that will be acceptable to voters.

The council will appoint members to the project’s community task force, which will include city Community Service Commission members, representatives of youth sports groups, city staff, homeowners and members of other groups that use the park.