Costa Mesa to pursue $1-million grant to help install artificial turf at 2 fields
Costa Mesa will seek a $1-million state grant to help cover the cost of installing synthetic turf at two fields in the Jack R. Hammett Sports Complex following a City Council vote Tuesday night.
With no discussion, council members voted 4-0 to apply for the grant from the California Department of Parks and Recreation’s youth soccer and recreation development program.
Councilwoman Katrina Foley recused herself from the vote because she lives close to the sports complex, which is next to Costa Mesa High School.
If the grant is awarded, it would help cover the estimated $4.5 million it will cost to tear out the existing turf at two of the sport complex’s fields and put down artificial turf instead.
The council has earmarked the remaining $3.5 million of the cost as part of the city’s capital improvement budget.
The fields in question are lighted and primarily used for youth soccer and flag football. There are no plans to explore adding synthetic turf to any other fields at the complex, city spokesman Tony Dodero said.
The natural turf fields at the sports complex are used throughout the year but have to be periodically closed for “rest and renovation,” Dodero said.
Those down periods, along with “extended periods of non-use after rain” and “the limited hours of programming to manage excessive wear” reduce the number of hours the fields are available for use, he said.
“Replacing natural turf with artificial turf will allow for continuous programming through most of the year,” Dodero said.
The grant money would come from Proposition 40, a $2.6-billion bond that voters approved in 2002 to bankroll parks and conservation projects statewide.
If the city’s application is approved, construction could start after July 1. The work is expected to take less than six months.
Costa Mesa currently doesn’t have artificial turf fields at city facilities, according to Dodero, though the city and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District are collaborating on studies to determine whether it’s feasible to install artificial turf and permanent sports lighting at Parsons Field and Kaiser Elementary and Davis Magnet schools.
