ON THE AGENDA FAIRVIEW PARK Council...

ON THE AGENDA

FAIRVIEW PARK

Council members will discuss various portions of the Fairview Park

master plan tonight, including accomplishments, fundraising, grants

and future goals.

Fairview Park Plan Administrator Ron Molendyke, who was hired to

educate the community about the park, will report to the City Council

on the city’s progress on Fairview Park and potential plans.

The Fairview Park Master Plan was adopted Dec. 15, 1997. Since

then, numerous aspects of the plan, including proposals for paved

trails, parking structures, a cultural museum, botanical gardens and

the railroad, have been debated in City Hall.

City leaders have spent hours in the last few years reviewing

questionable items, holding public hearings and hiring experts to

conduct community workshops.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Residents are expected to offer ideas for the park and urge the

council to hurry up and implement the plans or stop spending money on

it and leave it alone.

AIRPORT FUNDING

Councilman Chris Steel will ask his colleagues to reconsider

funding a regional airport authority tonight, although city leaders

omitted the expense from the budget.

The Orange County Regional Airport Authority is a joint powers

organization with 14 member cities that was established to address

county air transportation needs. Steel is Costa Mesa’s representative

on the board.

Jack Wagner, executive director of the airport authority’s board,

has asked the city to continue its voluntary funding of $1,000 per

month to fund ongoing business operations.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Because of the anticipated belt-tightening due to state budget

woes, don’t expect the council to throw any money at an airport

battle, which is thought by most to be dead.

CENTERLINE OPTIONS

The council will decide tonight whether to send a letter to county

transportation officials formally requesting an underground rail

system option be studied.

Councilwoman Libby Cowan, who has worked diligently over the past

year to launch a light rail system that would link Costa Mesa with

Santa Ana and Irvine, said city business owners support examining the

option to put portions of the rail system underground and that city

leaders must convince their counterparts in other cities of the

benefits of at least studying it.

The cost to study that preference would be shared by all three

cities, though, arguably, the option would only benefit Costa Mesa.

That imbalance will deter endorsements from other city leaders and

cause a political battle, she warned.

But the 11-mile rail, set to run from Santa Ana to Irvine, cannot

be built without Costa Mesa, which links the two, Cowan said. It is

important that Costa Mesa be given the opportunity to at least study

the underground option, which city officials predict is the best

option.

Peter Naghavi, city transportation manager, said the option to

underground would tack on another $150 million. County transportation

funds secured by Measure M offer $345 million over four years for the

project, Naghavi said. The city of Irvine added $126 million to the

pot, he said. The rest of the money would come from federal grants.

The Centerline light rail system is set to travel -- for the most

part above ground -- from the Santa Ana transportation center,

through the South Coast Metro portion of Costa Mesa, to John Wayne

Airport and finally ending at UC Irvine. Cost estimates of this

latest proposal are about $1.3 billion, officials said.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Council members are expected to support the letter.

-- Compiled by Lolita Harper