HUNTINGTON BEACH : Park Area to Become Youth Sports Complex

The City Council this week unanimously agreed to set aside 50 acres at Huntington Central Park for a $20-million youth sports complex.

More than 300 youngsters and their parents turned out Monday night to urge the council to build the facility at the park.

Among those who attended the meeting was Matt Koruba, 10, who said that he is involved in local sports and wants more grass fields in the city to play on.

“The fields are like junk,” he said in an interview. “It’s like playing in dirt. You get skinned knees.”

Being involved in sports programs, he said, “gives the kids something to do. It keeps them occupied and it keeps them off the streets.”

Chuck Beauregard, president of Save Our Kids, a coalition of more than 20 youth sports groups, said it is time city officials make youths one of their top priorities.

“If you really care about the quality of life in Huntington Beach and its future, the last thing you can ignore is the children,” Beauregard said.

The City Council agreed and voted unanimously to set aside an undeveloped portion of Huntington Central Park for the sports complex.

“I think finally Huntington Beach is moving in the right direction as far as our young people are concerned,” Councilman Jim Silva said.

The park area being set aside for the sports complex is on the east side of Golden West Street, between Ellis Avenue and the Huntington Beach Central Library parking lot.

The facility will be built in three phases, said Ron Hagan, director of community services. The first 15-acre phase will include grass fields for baseball, soccer and football, and a roller-hockey arena. The cost is estimated at $4 million to $5 million. The next phases will include practice fields, followed by a gym, aquatic complex and community center.

The city does not have the money to build each of the phases, Hagan said, but it plans to work with youth sports groups to raise funds and seek government grants and public-private partnerships to build the playing fields.