O’Neill Park Is Born Again : 2,300-Acre Facility to Reopen After Redesign to Upgrade, Save Resource

When county parks chief Tim Miller was a ranger at O’Neill Regional Park nearly 20 years ago, he could hike to the top of a lush, tree-lined mesa, look over the park, and the only living creatures in sight would be cattle grazing off in the distance.

But as the newly renovated park fully reopens Friday after a yearlong hiatus, the same vista now takes in rows of new, expensive homes and construction equipment toiling nearby.

Pinched in by the growing communities of Rancho Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo, popular camping areas in the park have been rebuilt to repair damage done by generations of visitors and to prepare for heavier future use as more houses are developed in the area.

“We have to adapt to a new reality that there are hundreds of thousands more people around now,” Miller said Wednesday during a pre-opening media tour at the 45-year-old park. “We have to protect our resources, but at the same time we realize that this is a very popular family park.”

The 2,300-acre park is home to large groves of oak, sycamore and pine trees. Many species of wildlife live there, from the occasional, reclusive mountain lion to the brash blue jays that hop onto picnic tables looking for handouts.

But it was the human visitors who were literally loving the park to death, say park officials.

More than 92,000 people came to O’Neill Park in 1991, the last full year the site was open. Aerial studies showed that many of park’s oak trees were dying, Miller said, mainly because the foot traffic was trampling the ground around them.

“When the park was first built in 1948, the planning didn’t take into account all the growth that has happened,” Miller said. “They didn’t have to think about resources and habitat concerns.”

Last July, county officials began a $1.6-million project to renovate the park’s 400-acre camping area. They started by redesigning the overnight facilities, reducing the number of campsites from about 160 to 93.

Where tent sites once lined the park near Live Oak Road, larger RV spaces have been built. A just-completed road services the new tent sites, which run alongside Trabuco Creek.

Rock pulled from the creek bed was used to build fences near the restrooms, open-air group picnic shelters and fire rings. Handicapped-accessible tent and RV sites were built, along with new shower facilities and view areas.

But most important, nearly all the trees in the camping areas are now protected by low-slung log fences, which guide people around the graceful oaks.

“The toughest part was designing the campsite and roads around the trees; we didn’t eliminate a single one of them,” said Jenny Stets, a county landscape architect. “There were challenges every step of the way, but it was wonderful to work on this project.”

County Supervisors Thomas F. Riley and Gaddi H. Vasquez also got their first look at the renovations Wednesday, and both were impressed by the new look.

“This is great,” said Vasquez, who recalled visiting the park with his family at age 9. “It was long in the making and long in the waiting, but I think it was worth the wait.”

Miller said his office has received hundreds of calls in recent weeks from campers eager for the park to reopen. To celebrate the refurbishments, the county will let the first 15 families who arrive at the park on Friday stay free over the Independence Day holiday.

O’Neill Regional Park, the second oldest park in the county system next to Irvine Regional Park, was named after Richard O’Neill Sr., who donated 278 acres to the county.

The family gave an additional 128 acres of parkland in 1963 before the county began acquiring parcels to enlarge the park. The largest acquisition came in 1982 when the 935-acre Arroyo Trabuco site was deeded to the county by the Rancho Mission Viejo Co. as part of the agreement to allow development of the Rancho Santa Margarita community.

That area, which Miller says contains stunning canyon views, is still closed to the public but is scheduled to open in about 18 months.

In the future, the rest of the park will undergo improvements, Stets said.

New trails are being cut into portions of the park that the public hasn’t yet seen. The park nature interpretive center will be renovated along with an equestrian camping area.

“We have big plans for O’Neill Park,” Miller said. “This (camp reopening) is just the start.”