Reform for athletic fields gathers pace

For several months now Costa Mesa has been stuck in the middle of a perfect parks and recreation storm. The squall has been fueled by several factors.

Over the course of the last census period, Costa Mesa’s population of children aged 10 to 14 has doubled. Not coincidentally, the demand for youth sports is exploding. For instance, the two American Youth Soccer Organization regions in Costa Mesa provide nearly 4,000 children the opportunity to get in shape and develop their soccer skills with their schoolmates and neighborhood chums. This is good.

But as our town’s children demand more opportunities to play sports, Costa Mesa has done virtually nothing to add to its paltry inventory of athletic fields and, in particular, fields with lights. Save for the addition of the Farm Sports Complex, which effectively doubled the number of useable athletic fields on city land, Costa Mesa’s inventory of athletic fields has been static for the better part of a generation.

The good news is that conditions on the field side of the equation are improving with notable pace.

Earlier this year, the city and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District inked an improved joint-use agreement. The retooled partnership goes a long way to ensure that the 56 district-owned athletic fields the city permits youth and adult sports organizations to use after school hours remain safe and playable.

Most important, it preserves the city-school partnership for sharing athletic facilities. And that partnership is crucial. Without the agreement, Costa Mesa would have only 12 athletic fields under its control. That would be catastrophic to our youth and the sports they play.

But we’re not in the sunshine just yet. The school district’s important Measure A work to improve the learning environment of Costa Mesa’s tots is ongoing, and often requires the district to take athletic fields off the city’s permitting schedule for construction reasons. This is an environment that isn’t likely to improve soon. That’s because the passage of Measure F ensures that improvements on the district’s properties will be taking place for some time.

More good news is that Costa Mesa’s leadership now has a full appreciation of the imperative that we must expand and add to city-owned fields if we are to be successful in meeting the recreation needs of our kids. In fact, that appreciation is translating into action.

For instance, the city and the state are very near an agreement that will allow Costa Mesa to lease a sizable parcel of open land on the Fairview Development Center property for use by our city’s youth sports organizations.

Most important, Costa Mesa is about to launch the public process for adding addition lighted fields at the Farm Sports Complex. At 6 p.m. Thursday the city will host a community meeting in the Council Chambers to walk the public through its conceptual plan for lighting the remainder of the farm fields.

This solution represents the quickest, smartest and most effective opportunity for Costa Mesa to address the growing athletic and recreation needs of our youth. It is a project that deserves the community’s full support.