LAGUNA HILLS : City Council Votes to Develop Park

The hotly contested designs for the Rapid Falls Park development have been approved by the City Council despite urgings by a parade of residents that the city re-evaluate the issue.

The council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday for the $1.1-million project that will put two baseball fields with overlapping soccer fields on the undeveloped 8.8-acre park on Rapid Falls Road just west of Cabot Road. The approved designs also include a picnic area, restrooms and a 90-space parking lot.

While city recreation officials lauded the renovation as a vital step in improving Laguna Hills’ inadequate parks and playing fields, more than a dozen residents told the council the project was too large and needed more study.

“No matter how many of us come, no matter what we say or what questions we ask, you act like you’ve already made up your minds,” said Sharon Carraway, a resident of the exclusive Nellie Gail Ranch neighborhood bordering the crescent-shaped park.

Other irate residents, citing their concerns about increased noise, crime, traffic and parking problems, told council members their action seemed like “the rape of Nellie Gail Ranch” or “a steam-rolling.”

Councilwoman Melody Carruth assured residents that the project had been examined closely during the lengthy Parks Master Plan drafting process. She also pointed to recent design compromises that she said would cushion the impact of the park, such as eliminating field lighting, a basketball court, a concession stand and street parking.

The council also examined ways to route traffic away from the neighborhood to the west by limiting parking lot access and exits, and Carruth sugge s ted changing the site’s name to Cabot Park to further distance it from Nellie Gail.

Mayor L. Allen Songstad, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said that although he was happy the project would provide Laguna Hills with its first city-owned ball fields, other designs deserved more study.

In particular, he said, a Nellie Gail homeowners’ proposal to turn over an adjacent property to spread out the ball fields was dismissed too quickly.

“I keep wanting to support this, but I can’t,” Songstad said, drawing a round of cheers and applause from the Nellie Gail contingent. “We just don’t know enough about it.”