Wieder Cites Growth in Cities : County Financing of Urban Parks Urged

In an effort to bring recreational facilities closer to people’s homes, Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder on Monday proposed amending county regulations to give supervisors money to spend on urban parks.

Wieder said county regulations require that a regional park must be at least 100 acres to qualify for funds from the county Harbors, Beaches and Parks District.

But tracts that large are not readily available in urban areas of the county for park uses and those urban areas are nearly all incorporated and governed by cities, Wieder said in a letter to her fellow supervisors.

She suggested giving each supervisor up to $600,000 a year to develop urban recreational facilities, including joint development and maintenance with local, state or federal governments.

Wieder said the money could come from the Special Districts Augmentation Fund, a pool of property taxes and state funds that is used to finance the county Fire Department, libraries, flood control and other agencies.

Wieder said in her letter that, under current county rules, most money for regional park development goes to the “vast undeveloped, unincorporated areas in the south county where the county can more easily secure land dedications for open space and can address future needs of growing communities.”

Yet 70% of the county’s population resides in urban areas north and west of the Costa Mesa Freeway, and 75% of the county’s population growth in the next 10 years is expected to be in cities, Wieder pointed out.

She said the county’s existing plan “falls short in addressing the need for recreation facilities in urbanized areas of the central and northern portions of the county where increases in density have created a high demand for open space.”

Wieder’s district runs along the ocean from the Los Angeles County line to Costa Mesa.

She said the $3-million cost of the program could be reduced by the supervisors in any year, and she stressed in the letter that the money would not be taken from existing projects or new ones proposed by the Harbors, Beaches and Parks District.