DANA POINT : Residents Seek to Keep Park Private

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, the only people in the four-acre Dana Woods Park are two youngsters kicking a soccer ball and a middle-aged woman sunning herself on a blanket.

It is a scene that homeowners living around the private park are fighting to preserve.

Next week, about 100 members of the Dana Woods Homeowners Assn. are expected to fill City Council chambers in an effort to prevent the park from being opened to the public--an action they say would shatter the tranquillity of this affluent community and lead to rampant vandalism.

Capistrano Bay Park and Recreation District officials are looking to take over the park from the county, which holds the option on the four acres.

“We’re like two kids fighting over ice cream,” said Bryan Flynn, president of the homeowners group.

Since 1980, shortly after the 240-home subdivision was built, Dana Woods residents have paid to cultivate the park from a plot of dirt into lush, tree-lined parkland. Flynn estimates that the cost of landscaping and maintenance, paid out of association dues, has run about $200,000 in 10 years.

Legally, the park belongs to the homeowners association, which pays taxes on the property. However, for the past decade, the county has held the right to transfer ownership to a local government agency, said Robert Hamilton, county recreation program manager. Because of budget problems, the county lacked the money to develop parkland, including Dana Woods Park, he said.

When Dana Point was moved into the Capistrano recreation district last year, recreation officials began to look at taking over several park sites with county options.

Although Dana Woods Park is one of those sites, “it’s not guaranteed that we would make it public,” said park spokesman David Lewis. If the Dana Point community doesn’t see a need for the park, the recreation district might turn it over to Dana Woods homeowners, he said.

Lewis said he sympathizes with the residents, but he noted that “the county’s intent was always to make that park public.”

On Nov. 28, the homeowners association will ask the Dana Point City Council to take over the county option. The group, which intends to apply for permission to become a gated community, feels the council would be more sympathetic to the residents, Flynn said.

Homeowners have complained that opening the park would encourage vandalism. In recent months, vandals have left tacks in a playground and set off a pipe bomb in the park swimming pool area, Flynn said.