COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

An essential component of a city’s obligation to serve its taxpaying constituents is to ensure that adequate parks and other recreational facilities are readily available to meet the needs of the community.

In Newport Beach, the ever-expanding participation of the city’s youngsters in organized youth soccer leagues is vastly outpacing the city’s ability to provide adequate fields on which our kids can play the game they love.

The good news is that a new active-use sports park is coming to Newport Beach soon. The Newport Beach Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission will review a concept plan for Sunset Ridge Park Tuesday. Located on the northwest corner of Superior Avenue and West Coast Highway, the initial design for the park includes two soccer fields and a baseball field.

While Soccer Families 4 Newport Fields — a coalition of concerned parents who represent the more than 4,000 Newport Beach youth who play soccer ( www.soccerfamilies4fields.com) — is thankful for the leadership of Councilman Steve Rosansky for placing the park’s development on track, we’re concerned the concept plan for the park doesn’t fully address the enormous needs of our soccer-playing youth. Specifically, the inclusion of a baseball diamond in the park will limit the use of the park by our city’s youth soccer players to the fall only.

Within our respective youth soccer organizations — AYSO Regions 97 and 57 — nearly 4,000 kids from younger than 5 to nearly 19 participate in our fall and spring soccer seasons. But we face a crisis. Newport Beach simply does not have enough soccer fields to accommodate the kids who participate in organized leagues. This is particularly true during the spring, when the city’s youth baseball organizations play on baseball fields that overlap the soccer fields. Our spring soccer seasons are enormously important to our girl participants, who represent approximately 70% of our spring registrants. Absent other choices, spring soccer is vital to their remaining active.

In recent years, AYSO 97 has had to rely on the city of Costa Mesa to make up for the lack of available fields in Newport. But Costa Mesa also faces field shortage issues as their youth soccer programs are also rapidly expanding. Youth soccer in Newport Beach is the largest and fastest growing organized youth sport the city, and serves three times the number of kids than all other youth sports combined. Yet, it is the most underserved population in our city with respect to field availability.

We believe it is time our city’s leaders elevate their sensitivity to the recreational needs of our young soccer players and place the highest priority on new-park development to the accommodation of year-round soccer play.

They can take an important first step in this regard by making sure Sunset Ridge Park is available for soccer play in the fall and the spring.

JEFF BRAUN is regional commissioner of AYSO Region 97. PHILLIP GREENBERG is regional commissioner of AYSO Region 57. Information about Soccer Families 4 Newport Fields is available at www.soccerfamilies4fields.com.