City narrows in on three new parks

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- One parcel of city land waiting to be transformed

into a park will soon be just one of four. As the Bonita Canyon Sports

Park project gets a new deadline for completion, city officials are

already beginning to make plans for three more parks -- Sunset Ridge,

Upper Bayview and Newport Village.

The biggest of the projects, the nearly $7-million Bonita Canyon

Sports Park, came to a halt last year after contractor Castello Inc., was

paralyzed by financial problems. City officials, working with the job’s

insurer, have set July 15 as the new completion date for the 40-acre

complex of tennis courts, baseball fields, soccer fields, tot lots, three

restrooms, a walking trail and parking facilities.

“We lost some time, but the park will get done, and at no extra cost

to the city,” Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood said.

While the sports park job gets back on track, the city is planning

what to do with three other soon-to-be parks.

Sunset Ridge Park, the working nickname for a site at West Coast

Highway and Superior Avenue, was the subject of much celebration late

last year when legislation passed making it possible for the city to

purchase the land for the 1966 price of $1.3 million. Once the

transaction is completed, the city could decide to build playing fields

and other recreational facilities there. They could also decide to wait.

“The development of that park could wait to be done in conjunction

with adjacent development of Banning Ranch,” Public Works Director Steve

Badum said. “That could be the way to build access to the site that

otherwise is difficult to get to.”

Banning Ranch is a proposed development of up to 1,750 homes on a 412-acre site at the city’s western border. About 40 acres of the

property are within Newport Beach, the rest are on unincorporated county

land.

Upper Bayview Landing, the northwest corner of Coast Highway and

Jamboree Road, and Newport Village, a vacant lot just north of the

Central Library between Avocado Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard, are both

pledged by the Irvine Co. to be dedicated to the city as park space.

Upper Bayview Landing once hosted a gas station. The city is waiting

for county officials to determine whether soil contamination there will

require cleanup.

“We just need to be sure we’re not inheriting any problems,” Badum

said.

Like Newport Village, it’s likely the land will be developed as open

park space without any playing fields or any extensive recreation

facilities, officials said.

In a special joint meeting Tuesday, the City Council and the Parks,

Beaches and Recreation Commission will study the question of what to do

with the three newest parklands.

“We need to look at how much it will cost to development them, whether

we can get any grants and what to do first,” said Dave Niederhaus, the

city’s general services director.