POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:Costa Mesa short on sports fields, ideas

Costa Mesa residents and council members have long lamented the shortage of sports fields, especially lighted ones. But when it comes to getting more sports fields, city officials are having trouble figuring out where to look.

The council put money in the 2005-06 budget to consider seven properties owned by government agencies, none of which are for sale, as possible sites for recreation facilities. But some City Council members, at a joint study session with the parks commission Tuesday, didn’t see the point of developing plans for properties they may never be able to buy.

“I think it would make more sense to refocus our efforts on tangible situations, city-owned properties,” Councilman Eric Bever said.

Sounds sensible, but the problem is the city doesn’t seem to have many properties that fit the bill. The city has found a few unique solutions, such as an agreement with Fairview Developmental Center to create sports fields on the center’s grounds.

Parks commissioner Mark Harris suggested redesigning the model train route at the east end of Fairview Park to leave space for fields. It’s not clear what the council thought of that plan.

Officials have largely relied on the city’s joint-use agreement with the school district to provide fields, and that likely will continue.

One thing council members and commissioners did appear to agree on Tuesday was creating a master plan for fields at adjacent school facilities, including Costa Mesa High School, and Davis, TeWinkle and California schools.

Moorlach’s next task is annexation

Now that county officials are moving ahead with $23 million in projects to fix up Santa Ana Heights, Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach will have to find another immovable object and get to work on it.

His next job is moving Costa Mesa and Newport Beach to the same page on the annexation of four unincorporated areas the cities have battled over for years — West Santa Ana Heights, Banning Ranch, the Santa Ana Country Club and a neighborhood south of Mesa Drive.

Several previous rounds of negotiations between the two cities, including one with a professional mediator, failed. The cities face a May deadline to bring a solution to the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission, which decides annexations.

Barbara Venezia, chairwoman of a committee that represents Santa Ana Heights residents, has faith in the supervisor. “John Moorlach is a guy who gets things done,” she said. He’s committed to getting the Western half of her neighborhood inside city boundaries, Venezia said.

The question is, which city? West Santa Ana Heights residents have unequivocally said they want to become part of Newport Beach, but the area is in Costa Mesa’s sphere of influence — which means it now has the first right to try to annex.

Moorlach said he’s still talking to both cities to work out a solution, and he stopped short of saying where West Santa Ana Heights should go.

“We’re firmly committed to getting it annexed,” he said.

Residential committee to discuss recovery facilities

Today is the second meeting of Newport Beach’s intense residential occupancy committee, which began meeting two weeks ago to address homeowners’ concerns about drug and alcohol recovery facilities and other types of group homes.

Residents likely will continue to pressure the City Council to crack down on the homes, which they say cause noise, litter and sometimes crime.

At the last meeting, the committee asked for changes to toughen a group home regulation bill state Sen. Tom Harman is sponsoring, but the council on Tuesday opted to request a less severe revision of the bill.

Harman’s bill would require group homes operated by the same company to be at least 300 feet apart. Residents and the committee suggested making the distance 1,000 feet and extending the restriction to all group homes, regardless of who operates them.

Some city officials thought the 1,000 feet would be too much to ask of a legislature that has killed most bills on the group home issue.

“I worry that we’ve seen the more Draconian distance requirements in bills fail, and I worry that if Harman’s bill is changed from what it is today, the whole bill will fail,” Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff told the council.

Instead, the council will ask Harman to change the bill to make it harder for drug and alcohol recovery home operators to qualify for the extensive legal protections enjoyed by small facilities. It is nearly impossible for the city to regulate homes for six or fewer people because of federal fair housing law and protections for people with disabilities, city officials have said.

Operators can get around the tougher regulations for large facilities by opening several smaller ones, and the city’s change to the bill would address that. But some residents didn’t like Harman’s bill as it was, and they said they’d rather see no law than one that isn’t effective.

“I think that’s harmful to us,” said Bob Rush, a resident and member of the city committee. “It doesn’t really solve the problem.”

The intense residential occupancy committee meets at 6 p.m. today in the friends room of the Newport Beach Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave.

Newport council sets priorities

Deciding what to do with Newport Center Park and hammering out how to address group homes are issues that are occupying a lot of time for Newport Beach council members, but they’re also thinking about the future. At a retreat last weekend, council members talked about long-range plans, and what they came up with may sound familiar to those who’ve been around Newport.

Among the council’s top priorities are finding a new city hall site, strengthening protections against John Wayne Airport’s impact on neighborhoods, traffic control, increasing city government’s efficiency, and, of course, better regulating drug and alcohol rehab facilities.

New Councilwoman Nancy Gardner said council members had a good discussion, but they realized not all their priorities can be dealt with and checked off the list. For example, decisions on the airport need the approval of regional and federal authorities.

“Obviously the airport’s such an issue for everybody, and there are some things we can do now, but other things are long-term,” Gardner said.

City officials will ask for public input on their priorities, but they haven’t yet figured out what format they’ll use to do it, she said.

Residents: Talk about traffic

Costa Mesa residents are invited to a town hall meeting next Thursday to talk about traffic on neighborhood streets. The meeting will cover only two-lane, residential streets. City transportation workers will be there to hear from residents and explain options to manage traffic in residential areas. The meeting will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Ave., Costa Mesa. For information, call (714) 754-5185.