River park close to reality

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 someday 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 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 Nancy Gardner, one of a

coalition of local environmentalists promoting the part 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 Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and

Costa Mesa, $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 the blessing of the local governments.

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

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

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

slated to eventually be annexed 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.

“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 park would stretch 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 is a reporter with Times Community News. She

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

june.casagrande@latimes.com.