First-Phase Plans Approved for Long-Awaited Forster Ranch Community Park
The long-awaited Forster Ranch Community Park came closer to reality this week when the City Council approved plans for the park’s first phase.
Under the proposal, the 9-acre park would include a lighted baseball field, an unlighted soccer field, concession and restroom buildings, picnic grounds and a running track. The park, to be built next to the Truman Benedict Elementary School, is to be completed by March 1998.
Though residents of Forster Ranch have waited 10 years for the park, some of them have expressed concerns about the sports lighting.
“Nobody wants the ball fields lit,” resident Cathy Ganze told council members, because late-night games might generate noise, traffic and loitering. “I feel this is being railroaded through.”
In the next two months, city staff members will meet with Forster Ranch homeowners associations to address those concerns and decide which facilities should be developed first. The city cannot afford to complete the park now but has budgeted $830,000 for the first phase.
“We’re going to do as many of the improvements as we can with the funds that we have available,” Mayor Steve Apodaca said.
Because the park site belongs to the Capistrano Unified School District, the council also approved a tentative joint-use agreement with that entity.
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