Briefly

Jennifer Kho

Looking to make some changes to keep it fresh, the Orange County

Fairgrounds will begin what could result in a two-year process to amend

its master plan at a meeting tonight.

The fairgrounds is in the final stages of revising its vision plan,

which establishes the direction of the master plan, said Becky

Bailey-Findley, general manager and chief executive of the fairgrounds.

The public is welcome to attend the meeting, she said.

“The Orange County Fair is a premiere event, and we need to make sure

we keep the fair, as an event, special, but we also need to look at ways

to keep the fairgrounds a community asset year-round,” Bailey-Findley

said, adding that she hopes community members will have new ideas for the

fairgrounds. “We’re looking at ways that we can make that happen.”

The last master plan, created in the 1980s, emphasized using commerce

to bring revenue in to support the fairgrounds’ community service

programs, she said.

“The tone of the last master plan was more commercial driven,”

Bailey-Findley said. “The tone we’re seeing now, at least preliminarily,

is that we want the fairgrounds to be proactive as a community resource.

It doesn’t mean that we should not be fiscally responsible and

self-supporting, but we’re not necessarily looking at bringing commercial

development to the fairgrounds.”

The meeting will be held at the Memorial Gardens at the Orange County

Fairgrounds, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.

Information: (714) 708-3247.