The right type of play

After several years of complaints about organized sports in Paularino Park, Costa Mesa city leaders are taking a look at all parks and what activities are appropriate based on each park’s size.

The parks commission, City Council and residents have gone back and forth since at least 2003 about whether sports such as soccer should be allowed at Paularino Park.

Opponents argue the park is simply too small, and a soccer game with more than a few players puts other park users in the path of charging feet and flying balls.

But others say overly strict rules will mean even a family or two playing a pick-up game would risk the wrath of the park ranger.

One suggestion is to put in trees or large boulders to make it harder to play sports, but the City Council’s answer was to bring in the neighborhood around Paularino Park and see what people think, City Manager Allan Roeder said. A public meeting is set for Wednesday.

The larger issue is how to classify parks, as either active or passive. The city has 30 parks, five of which have sports fields. The others range in size from “pocket parks,” the smallest, to regional parks such as Fairview Park that draw people from as far as 10 miles away, city recreation manager Jana Ransom said.

“Most of our parks are community parks, which means that their sphere of usage is about a quarter- to a half-mile away that people will walk or ride to the park,” she said.

Smaller parks that lack athletic facilities are referred to as “passive,” but there’s no official designation in city rules. That could change, but first officials need to develop criteria for what’s active and what’s passive. For example, does passive mean no sports at all? Is a two-person game of catch an active use?

“The bottom line is, in my opinion, that we really need to look at all our parks and categorize them and identify them as active or passive,” said Councilwoman Wendy Leece, who served on the parks commission until she was elected to the council in 2006.

The city has a rule that activities that include more than 10 people require a permit to use park space. While some argue that large soccer games regularly violate that rule, Roeder said it’s sometimes hard for park rangers to know when a game goes from a few friends to an organized activity.

“That line has been very blurred and makes it very difficult for park rangers to enforce,” he said.

At a recent council meeting, resident Martin Millard — who has complained about sports at Paularino Park for more than three years — took city staff and the council to task for responding to the issue so slowly.

Roeder acknowledged progress has been minimal, but said officials have been focused on trying to find more lighted sports fields, which local soccer and football groups have clamored for. “We’re trying to tackle it from both ends,” he said.