City Council urges accord on field use

The city won’t scrap the agreement that governs how athletic fields

are divided between city and school district athletic teams.

But the City Council is sending a stronger message to the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District that the council wants the issue

resolved soon.

A shortage of athletic fields, especially lighted ones for

nighttime play, led to the creation of the joint-use agreement, which

describes how field time is doled out to school and club sports teams

and who will maintain the fields. The city and the school district

have been working for nearly a year to revise the agreement.

The council on Tuesday voted, 3-1, to defer any changes to the

joint-use agreement until the district agrees to certain conditions.

Mayor Allan Mansoor voted against the proposal, and Councilman Gary

Monahan was absent.

The schools would take over mowing and other regular field

maintenance from the city, but the city would shift about $200,000 a

year from such maintenance to improvements, such as replacing

irrigation systems.

School officials will be asked not to rescind any field-use

permits granted by the city, which has happened in the past.

“I will not stand for our staff working hard and then having a

field yanked and they get the repercussions of an unhappy community,”

said Councilwoman Linda Dixon.

The council’s decision “sort of puts them [the schools] on notice,

I think, what the city’s position is,” city recreation manager Jana

Ransom said Wednesday. “We just can’t go on with a document that

allows room for interpretation of the way one party or the other

thinks it ought to be.”

Council members also agreed to ban adult sports from all

elementary school fields and restrict them to Costa Mesa and Estancia

high schools and the Parsons, Davis and Balearic school fields.

Neighbors have complained that adult soccer groups can be noisy

and leave trash behind.

The change means fewer fields will be available for adult sports

groups, Ransom said.

“It still provides some space but it respects the neighborhoods

around those schools,” she said.

Residents at Tuesday’s meeting were most concerned about the

shortage of athletic fields, and the city is already looking at how

and where it can find more space.

But speakers also worried that the council would take fields away

from two clubs that don’t include a majority of Costa Mesa players.

That issue is off the table for now. Ransom said Wednesday that

city parks and recreation commissioner, Byron De Arakal, withdrew a

request that the commission look at field allocations to American

Youth Soccer Organization Region 97 and Newport Harbor Baseball.

The two groups draw members from both Newport beach and Costa

Mesa, but get the same priority for fields as sports clubs made up of

at least 90% Costa Mesa residents.

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