80-foot-tall netting structure being built beside Estancia baseball field draws objections from neighbors
More than a dozen Costa Mesa residents who live next to Estancia High School’s baseball field voiced concerns at a community meeting Monday night about a netting structure being built between the field and their homes.
About 15 poles, each approximately 20 feet tall, have been inserted in the ground along the third- and first-base lines. The poles are intended to help support netting that would keep foul balls from hitting neighboring houses and a row of solar panels that cover a nearby school parking lot.
The next steps for the structure, which in original construction plans is intended to be 80 feet tall, will be determined once Newport-Mesa Unified School District staff reviews input gathered at the community meeting, according to district spokeswoman Annette Franco. The cost of the intended project totals $550,750.
The Estancia baseball field’s third-base line runs directly behind the backyards of homes on Joann Street, while the first-base line runs parallel to the row of solar panels.
Nearby residents said they first learned of the poles when they were being installed Aug. 5.
“We have five [poles] in our line of sight,” Dave Goodman said of the view from his family’s backyard.
“It’s intimidating just looking at them,” said Heather Betzer, who lives behind the field’s home plate.
Betzer, who moved to Costa Mesa from Newport Beach in January, said she has never seen a baseball in her family’s yard.
After contacting other residents, Goodman met with a neighbor who knows Newport-Mesa trustee Vicki Snell. He then wrote a letter to Snell and Supt. Fred Navarro requesting that district officials meet with Joann Street residents to discuss the netting project.
The meeting Monday at the Estancia library was attended by Navarro, Snell, district Executive Director of Secondary Education Kirk Bauermeister and 15 Joann Street residents.
“The desire for tonight’s meeting is not to be combative or accusatory,” Goodman said. “My hope is that this is only one of many collaborative conversations between all of us moving forward.”
Many residents said the netting structure would obstruct their “open-sky and sunset-filled” views and decrease their property values.
Navarro told residents that the district considered moving the baseball diamond, “but that’s an even much greater cost.”
Residents also raised questions about the thick poles being earthquake-safe.
Bauermeister said the poles need to meet a “bigger standard” since they are installed on a school campus.
“The two facilities that have to stay standing in any kind of disaster are hospitals and schools,” Bauermeister told residents. “If all your houses fall down, you’re going to go to schools and house there or go to hospitals. So whenever we build something, it’s to these standards. ... Those [poles] will withstand pretty much anything.”
Navarro said a date for another meeting with residents has yet to be determined.
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Alex Chan, alexandra.chan@latimes.com
Twitter: @AlexandraChan10
