LAGUNA BEACH : City OKs Use of Park for Soccer

The City Council has agreed that Moulton Meadows Park field should, for part of the year, be reserved for organized soccer games, and has chided residents who said the games shouldn’t be encouraged in their “back yard.”

“I’m just very disappointed,” Councilman Dan Kenney said after listening to Arch Beach Heights residents say Moulton Meadows should remain a neighborhood park. “It’s not a park for Arch Beach Heights. It’s a park for Laguna Beach.”

With the sometimes bitter public hearing behind them Tuesday night, the council voted 3 to 2 to reserve the field for soccer play on Saturday mornings from September through November, or January if playoffs are necessary, for a one-year trial. It will be the only regulation-size soccer field in Laguna Beach. Councilmen Neil G. Fitzpatrick and Robert F. Gentry cast the dissenting votes.

Residents of Arch Beach Heights, near the south end of town, question the need for a regulation-size soccer field and say they fear soccer will increase litter, traffic and parking problems near their homes.