Dana Point Will Hire Help to Finish Parks Study
After much wrangling, the City Council voted this week to spend as much as $47,900 to hire a consultant to complete a parks and recreation study begun in 1993.
The study will provide a master plan as well as a financial blueprint for the city to follow as it looks at developing park projects. Much of the work will involve updating the study that was being done by the Capistrano Bay Parks and Recreation District before it merged with the city in 1993.
Council members Toni Gallagher and William L. Ossenmacher vigorously opposed the plan, calling it fiscally irresponsible.
“To go out and spend another $50,000 for something that’s already done is crazy,” Gallagher said. “Anything that needs to be done to [the old study] can be done by staff.”
Those who supported the expenditure said that the old study lacks valid information and that it does not take into account the revenue lost after the previous park district dissolved.
“The previous document, even if it had been adopted, is not a valuable document,” Councilwoman Judy Curreri said. “That’s because the financial picture has changed.”
The contract was awarded to James Dockstader Landscape Architect of Laguna Beach.
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