FULLERTON : A Recreation Plan for Brea Dam Area

Proposed recreational uses of the Brea Dam area will be the topic of a public hearing tonight before the Fullerton Community Services Commission.

Most of the land is a wildlife area, but parts of it could be developed for recreational use, said Wes Morgan, superintendent of the Community Services Department.

“It’s about as open a space as you get in an urbanized area,” he said.

Tonight’s meeting at 7:30 in the City Council chambers will consider a proposed master plan for the 300-acre area, which is on the east side of Harbor Boulevard near Bastanchury Road.

Most of the land, administered by the Army Corps of Engineers, needs to remain undeveloped because it is used as a drainage channel and reservoir, Morgan said. He said that although the ground is almost always dry, it flooded during heavy winter rains in 1983, wiping out four holes of the Fullerton Golf Course and nearly filling the dam.

Fullerton leases some of the land for a golf course, nine tennis courts, a YMCA recreation center and a children’s center run by the Children’s League of Fullerton.

Horse riders and joggers also use dirt paths winding through the area. Two Fullerton horse trails feed into the Brea Dam area, said Marci Moscorro, a member of Fullerton Recreational Riders.

The master plan proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers will keep most of the land undeveloped to preserve wildlife, which is fed by a small stream, Morgan said. But relatively flat sections could be used to build campgrounds, sports fields, playgrounds, stables and even a recreational resort, according to the proposed master plan.

Any development the city suggests for the area would have to be approved by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Most developers who have approached the city with plans have wanted to build large projects that involve heavy land grading, Morgan said.

“Most people want to move the land around and build condominiums,” he said.

The city’s largest area open to higher-intensity recreational use is south of Bastanchury on the site of an old mini-bike riding course. Other high-intensity projects could go near the tennis courts and along Harbor Boulevard on the south side of the dam.