HUNTINGTON BEACH : Poll to Be Taken on Park Development

After abandoning an idea this week to let voters advise the City Council about how to develop two areas of Central Park, council members agreed to hire a consultant to poll residents on how the land should be used.

The council unanimously rejected a proposal to place a non-binding advisory measure on the Nov. 6 ballot. The measure would have given voters a choice of six possible developments for about 112 acres of the south end of the park.

Council members had hoped that such a ballot measure would give residents a voice in the future of Central Park, which has been a controversial issue among council members for more than a decade.

But the item was dropped because the council was unable to agree upon how the proposal should be worded, Councilman John Erskine said. Monday was the deadline to put city measures on the November ballot.

“We couldn’t get the wording straightened out, and we were afraid that a poorly worded item on the ballot would only result in a misreading of what the public wants,” Erskine said.

The council is now seeking proposals from consultants to conduct a telephone survey of city residents to determine how the public believes undeveloped areas of the park should take shape.

“As it turns out, this may be a better way to go,” Mayor Thomas J. Mays said. “It’s easier to talk to somebody about what they’d like to see (in Central Park) than having them read it (on a ballot) and let them figure it out.”

A residents group that has long clamored for public input in determining how Central Park should be developed supports the council’s decision to forgo the advisory ballot measure.

“We’re always supportive of anything that provides public input . . . but with a ballot survey that’s not binding, I’m not sure how much that would be listened to (by council members),” said Debbie Cook, spokeswoman for Save Our Parks, which was formed a year ago to fight a proposed 18-hole golf course in the park.

The rejected ballot measure would have polled residents on which of six potential developments they preferred for the two sites: a park with children’s play areas; a concert bandstand; expanded equestrian trails; tennis, basketball and volleyball courts; a nine-hole golf course, or an 18-hole golf course.

The consultant will likely ask residents about their preferences among those proposals as well as others, Mays said.

The council has already agreed to set aside a 21-acre area of the park for a lighted complex of youth baseball, football and soccer fields.