Council to hear river park plug

June Casagrande

If you can visualize a 1,000-acre park shaped like the Jolly Green

Giant, with Costa Mesa’s Fairview Park as its head, you may be

dreaming, but you’re not crazy.

The super-ambitious plan for an Orange Coast River Park has become

even more realistic as promoters roll out their vision to local

governments and as an Assembly bill offers hope for some funds.

Representatives of several environmental groups plan to give a

presentation to the Newport Beach City Council on Tuesday about the

park they hope will some day sprawl across three cities with

preserved wetlands, ponds to naturally treat urban runoff before it

goes into the ocean and an elaborate system of trails and restored

habitats. Rough estimates of the project’s cost start at an

optimistic $10 million and could exceed $20 million, depending on how

much of the land for the park must be purchased.

“We’re not suggesting that owners give us the land or that cities

tax themselves to pay for the purchase,” said Newport resident Nancy

Gardner, one of a coalition of local environmentalists promoting the

park concept to local agencies. “We’re looking for funding through a

number of sources including grants.”

The Orange Coast River Park was conceived in the late 1990s by the

countywide Friends of the Harbors, Beaches and Parks. The group has

completed its concept plan for the park.

The plans were developed in part by funding from local

governments, including $5,000 each from the cities of Newport Beach,

Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach, $10,000 from Orange County and

$15,000 from the California Coastal Conservancy.

Friends of the Harbors, Beaches and Parks has been showing off the

concept plans to local governments in hopes of winning their

blessing.

The lands that would make up the park are now owned by the cities

of Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach, the county of Orange, the federal

government and private companies. A portion of the county land is

slated to be annexed eventually to Newport Beach, but is not

projected to be annexed anytime soon.

A bill being considered by the state Legislature could help create

an umbrella organization to manage development and ownership of the

park.

Assembly Bill 496, introduced last month by Assemblyman Lou Correa

(D-Santa Ana), would create a conservancy to manage and protect 96

miles of the Santa Ana River. The agency would be similar to the

Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and could help tap state money to

purchase the parklands.

The bill has the support of Assemblymen Ken Maddox (R-Costa Mesa)

and Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach). Both are co-authors.

“This would allow us to be in a position get more state bond

money, to come forward for what’s needed,” said Jean Watt, a member

of the group working to make the park happen. “And if it passes, that

more or less establishes the working arrangement and the governance

for the park.”

The proposed park stretches from Fairview Park toward the ocean,

encompassing the county-owned North and South Talbert Park, and has

two “legs” that extend across Coast Highway.

One leg is largely in Huntington Beach’s jurisdiction, the other

is in the privately owned Banning Ranch property, which the county

has labeled as within the city of Newport Beach’s “sphere of

influence.”

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

june.casagrande@latimes.com.