Parks proposal draws jeers

If Costa Mesa officials go ahead with a plan to ban soccer and other team sports in the parks, they might risk angering a lot of residents living near those parks, according to an informal survey of neighbors Friday.

The City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to make it illegal to play team sports at 28 out of 30 parks in the city. City staffers say the plan is on the council’s agenda because of complaints from residents that sports in neighborhood parks are dangerous and noisy.

A lot of the parks in question are small, hilly or densely covered in trees, making sports all but impossible; but some of those parks have large, flat grass fields that are occasionally used for pickup games and informal practice.

Wimbledon Park, for instance, has a grass field in the center, next to the basketball courts where residents say kids sometimes play pickup soccer games. A survey of about 20 residents in and around the park Friday afternoon found unanimous opposition to a ban on team sports.

JJ Vogel, 11, sometimes brings her father and her friends to play soccer on the field, and her mother, Ileana, thinks it would be ridiculous to disallow that.

“You’re going to tell me that we live here, but my daughter won’t be able to kick a soccer ball here,” Ileana said. “I would protest that.”

So far, though, Vogel has not voiced that opinion to the City Council. In fact, none of the residents surveyed had even heard the proposal was on the table. They were confused as to why the city considered it an issue in the first place, having never themselves been bothered by athletic activity in the park before.

Many said the issue was probably dredged up by a few cantankerous residents who don’t represent the views of the community as a whole.

“Hardly anyone uses that park for anything humongous,” Denise Mauriello said. “They don’t really play anything organized there, but it would be nice if they did. It would get the kids out of the house.”

Costa Mesa resident Angela Minnameyer plays a pickup game of Frisbee at Estancia Park in Mesa Verde, another place where sports would be banned.

The game sometimes attracts about 10 to 15 people, which would make it illegal because the plan caps games at nine players.

“It seems kind of pointless,” Minnameyer said of the proposal. “I don’t know what else you would do there. It’s a big, open field.”

Neighbors have never complained about noise and no Frisbees have ever flown onto neighbors’ property, she said.

Judy Pancake, who has owned one of the closest houses to Estancia Park for 43 years, said she has been bothered by noise from skateboarders and cars, but never from sports.

“We worked to stop them from building a skateboard park up there, but just kids playing around in the park doesn’t seem like a problem,” Pancake said.

If the City Council designates the parks as either “passive” or “active,” signs would notify park visitors that using cleats or playing in large groups is forbidden.

Police and park rangers could cite violators.

In July 2007, a 2-to-1 City Council vote banned active sports in Paularino Park and boulders were put in to prevent people from kicking balls around.

Mayor Eric Bever and Councilwoman Wendy Leece favored the ban of sports at Paularino, and Councilwoman Linda Dixon adamantly opposed it.

Mayor Pro Tem Allan Mansoor and Councilwoman Katrina Foley were not present for that vote. The upcoming vote affects many more parks, though, with varying circumstances.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.