Plan stirs fairly negative response

Alicia Robinson

A week after 70th District Assemblyman John Campbell proposed moving

the Orange County Fair to Irvine’s Great Park development so the

state can sell the fairgrounds, local residents are approaching the

idea with caution.

“I think that, you know, like any other great idea the devil is

always in the details, so if those were addressed it might be a

really great proposition,” said Jeff Teller, president of the Orange

County Market Place, a profitable weekend swap meet that has been at

the fairgrounds for 35 years. “I’m very open-minded and I’m very

interested in hearing more about John’s plan.”

Campbell reported getting only two completely negative responses

out of more than 150 e-mailed to him since he pitched the idea last

week. Selling the 170-acre fairgrounds could raise as much as $300

million, of which $100 million could be devoted to relocating the

fairgrounds facilities and the remainder could help fill the hole in

the state budget, Campbell suggested.

But some people in Costa Mesa are balking at the plan because they

think it would take away an educational and recreational asset to the

community.

“I think it would be a great shame,” said Jeff Wilcox, president

of the Mesa del Mar Homeowners’ Assn., whose home is separated from

the fairgrounds only by TeWinkle Park. “The fairgrounds affords the

city with great entertainment venues and I think it would be

absolutely a travesty to have it move [to the Great Park].”

Noise complaints and lawsuits that led the fairgrounds’ Pacific

Amphitheater to close for eight years and perform extensive

renovations were driven by a couple people from his Mesa del Mar

neighborhood, Wilcox said. But most of the residents have no problem

with the fairgrounds now.

“It provides a great service to our children, to the residents

there,” he said. “The schools benefit from it.”

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District hasn’t taken an official

position, spokeswoman Jane Garland said. But Davis Education Center,

which sits across the street from the fairgrounds, uses its

facilities for various programs.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity that we have with the

fairgrounds so close,” Principal Cheryl Galloway said. “We would have

to find ways to replace all that. That’s not to say that we can’t.

It’s just convenient having it so close.”

The city also has gotten feedback from residents, which has been

mixed or negative, Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder said.

“I can’t say that I’ve heard anyone say, ‘Boy, this is a great

deal for Costa Mesa,’” he said.

The city stands to lose sales tax revenue from fairgrounds

operations, which in 2002 netted nearly $566,000 of the $37 million

in sales taxes collected that year, Roeder said. The city already is

short on recreational facilities and open space, and if the

fairgrounds are sold they likely would go to developers who would add

homes or commercial property, he said.

“I think it really goes totally the opposite direction of what we

hear regularly from the community,” Roeder said.

Campbell said some of the negative responses to the plan are from

people who still want an airport at the closed El Toro Marine Air

Base, where the Great Park will be located. The airport plan was

voted down by county residents in 2002.

Having the fairgrounds at El Toro, on the other hand, is viable

and could benefit everyone in the county by expanding fair facilities

and increasing people’s access to them, Campbell said.

“There is sufficient interest in this idea from a number of

quarters, and there’s sufficient support that we’re going to proceed

to do more investigation,” he said.