Costa Mesa can’t be everything to all people

by Kurt Mueller

I have lived in Costa Mesa since 1959, with brief sojourns to the

military and the university. My wife and I have lived in Mesa Del Mar

since 1988. We raised our two children in the Mesa Del Mar

neighborhood. Our daughters learned to play tennis at TeWinkle Park

and when they both were little we fed a lot of ducks and geese at the

lake. Now our city’s parks department wants to denude and

over-develop one of the city’s greatest assets.

I have lived here long enough to remember playing as a youngster

at Costa Mesa Park. You remember Costa Mesa Park, don’t you? Well, it

used to be where all those buildings are behind the Courtyards. Back

then TeWinkle was just a pile of dirt and a hole. I know, because I

used to ride my bike up and down that dirt mound after school. Then

it became a park, with little tiny trees. In my lifetime TeWinkle has

become an urban oasis with a lush suburban forest of beautifully

matured trees. TeWinkle has been our respite, in spite of being a

little down at the heels of late. Now it appears that our city has

designs on this urban treasure that will eventually result in a re-do

of the mega-development at the former Costa Mesa Park.

We have spoken at parks and recreation meetings, saying that the

level of land use at TeWinkle is at its maximum. When residents of

Mesa Del Mar consider that we have Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa

High School, Davis Elementary, the soccer fields and the ultimate

500-pound gorilla -- the Orange County fairgrounds, which is right on

our doorsteps -- we shudder at increased land use at TeWinkle Park.

We are dismayed at the level of development proposed for the park. We

are frightened by the obvious and undeniable increases in vehicle

traffic and the increased use by people with little or no stake in

our fragile neighborhood fabric.

TeWinkle is the wrong place to build a skateboard park, and the

baseball/softball fields need a minimum amount of redevelopment, not

a transformation into a semi-pro facility. Money should be spent

immediately to restore the health of the lake and to rebuild the

island gazebo, also known as the “tree house.” A general sprucing up

is in order, but additional uses and expanding existing uses should

be eschewed, avoided, not pursued.

Costa Mesa has still another park behind Estancia High School that

is capable of swallowing the uses the parks and recreation department

has convinced itself we need. And what about the land the miniature

train tracks are on, behind the city golf course? Can we revisit that

lease and utilize that land for some of the high-intensity land uses

being proposed?

City officials and those in the parks and recreation department

should turn their attention to new parcels of land and to the re-use

of other less impacted parcels, like the train area. How is it that

Ikea and Segerstrom can impact the last open space in the city and no

new park lands appeared in the development agreements? Could it be

that the city has had a development agenda for TeWinkle all along?

Even as negotiations for Home Ranch were under way? It seems so.

We ask that the issues surrounding the development of TeWinkle

Park be reconsidered with the wishes of the Mesa Del Mar neighborhood

held paramount.

Sometimes, as a resident, I have the feeling that the city cares

not a whit about the neighborhoods that make our city special. The

city’s only cares seem to revolve around commercial development and

sports complexes. Must Costa Mesa supply every want to every person

in Orange County? Aren’t world class shopping and one of the finest

community colleges in the country enough? Now we must cater to every

sub-set sport conceivable. Enough is enough. Costa Mesa is for Costa

Mesans.

* KURT MUELLER is a resident of Costa Mesa.