Local News in Brief : Countywide : Talks With Marines on Park Parcel Under Way

The Marine Corps and Orange County are negotiating a land swap in which the Marines will turn over 137 acres in the middle of Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley in exchange for 41 acres outside the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station.

“The deal has got a long way to go,” John R. Shaddy of the county’s General Services Agency said Wednesday.

Even if the Board of Supervisors approves the outline of the exchange next Tuesday, it could still take several years to get appraisals and have Congress authorize the trade, Shaddy said.

Another complication is that the county does not own the land it wants to trade. The Irvine Co. owns the two vacant parcels next to existing Marine Corps housing, which would be used for additional housing. The county would either have to buy it from the Irvine Co., exchange it for another parcel or condemn it.

Still, the Marines’ designation of land they want is a step forward in the county’s nearly decade-long attempt to make the Fountain Valley park fully owned by the county.

For years, the triangular parcel inside the park was used as a Marine helicopter training facility. But flights were halted after the surrounding area became developed. The county now leases it.

The park--which has a recreation center with tennis courts and ball field, as well as one golf course in operation and a second under construction--ranks with the Irvine Park as the county’s busiest regional parks, said Scott Morgan, an aide to Supervisor Roger R. Stanton.

The undeveloped Marine-owned land in the park is used mainly for extra parking, land sailing, flying of radio-controlled model airplanes and model rocket launching.