Building a Natural Setting : Land use: Joan Irvine Smith intends to turn a former strawberry field into a grassy park capable of hosting horse shows and public events.

Bounding out of her Range Rover, Joan Irvine Smith stood in the dirt amid the ruts of caterpillar tractors and scanned the untarnished beauty of the green hills surrounding her.

At her feet stretched 40 acres of brown earth that the 61-year-old heiress referred to as her “field of dreams.” By August she intends to turn it into a grassy park capable of hosting international horse shows and a variety of other public events, ranging from soccer games to concerts.

The center, to be called the Oaks Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park, will use portable stalls and stands as needed for events to help preserve the natural setting, according to Smith’s plans.

Most appealing about the project, Smith said, is its scenic setting on Ortega Highway in the midst of Rancho Mission Viejo, an operating cattle ranch, and just down the road from her own horse training facility, called The Oaks.

“You have left the asphalt jungle and come to the center of a William Wendt painting,” she said, as if showing off her latest art acquisition.

Although Smith’s wealth is derived from development of homes and industry on the Irvine Ranch, she has become an enthusiastic collector of paintings by Wendt and other Impressionists that capture the unspoiled scenes of early California. Three years ago, she founded a museum in Irvine to place the art on public display.

Now, in another effort to preserve a bit of the Old West, Smith has taken on the task of sculpting a natural amphitheater.

The park will be about three times the size of her central show ring at The Oaks and able to accommodate about 5,000 spectators.

She also suggested the field could be leased for polo and soccer games, car and dog shows, and concerts.

The endeavor is a partnership between Smith and Rancho Mission Viejo, which is owned by the O’Neill family.

Smith said that last fall ranch officials offered to lease her the land--previously a strawberry field--for $1 a year for 10 years, with the ability to extend the lease another 10 years if all goes well.

“It was a strawberry field and now it is a field of dreams,” Smith said, surveying the progress made after two weeks of grading to level the field and smooth the berms for planting. Not much had to be changed, she said, because nature already had created a bowl with elevations from which spectators may watch equestrian and other sporting events. As another option, she said, concerts and other performances might be presented on the higher elevations to crowds picnicking on the grassy field below.

As the managing partner in the venture, Smith hired a landscape architect, Robert Jolicoeur, whose Montreal firm designed the Georgia International Horse Park in Atlanta for the 1996 Olympic Games.

The new park will be next to Creekside, an 18-acre horse stable and riding center operated by Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates and his wife, which is in serious financial trouble.

However, Richard J. O’Neill, patriarch of the family that owns Rancho Mission Viejo, said he does not expect Smith’s equestrian park to pose a similar financial risk.

O’Neill noted that, unlike Gates, Smith does not intend to invest in expensive riding rings, stables and other facilities. Also, the new park, unlike Gates’ facility, will carry no mortgage, he said.

Gates, who previously planned to expand his equestrian center on the property Smith is now leasing, could not be reached last week to comment on Smith’s equestrian park.

Smith, who breeds and trains show horses, acknowledged that the riding park could boost her horse sales by attracting horse aficionados to Southern California. Also, it will provide more local shows in which her horses can compete.

One of Smith’s dreams, she said, is that West Coast horses may come to the riding park to qualify for the Olympics in 2000.

Smith acknowledged she still has plenty to do. She must obtain a county conditional-use permit to allow her to hold events at the park, which is in an unincorporated portion of the county just outside San Juan Capistrano.

She said she plans to present her plans to the San Juan Capistrano City Council.

Neither city nor county planning officials said they were as yet aware of Smith’s plans for the 40-acre parcel.

Smith said she is hiring a company to coordinate and market the park’s first event, planned for August, for which tickets will be sold to the public. It will be a “Western jubilee,” she said, which will feature a country singer, yet to be announced, and a chili cook-off. Also she said she plans to hold her Fall Oaks Classic jumping competition at the new grounds.

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A Natural Amphitheater Joan Irvine Smith is creating a 40-acre equestrian center to draw international horse shows, concerts and other entertainment. Only portable amenities will be permitted.