Plane Hobbyists Fear ‘No-Fly’ Zone at Park

It’s the buzz of the airstrip.

Every day, dozens of pilots of miniature airplanes from Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties gather at the paved expanse in the center of Mile Square Regional Park to discuss their passion--flying the model planes and, lately, how to step up their fight against the county’s plans to cover the asphalt and turn it into a golf course.

The strip, a daytime home to hundreds of model airplane enthusiasts, is one of the few such facilities remaining in Southern California, others having been replaced by development. The county is planning to replace it with a revenue-producing golf course, the 58th in Orange County.

So in addition to talking shop and exchanging model-building tips, the pilots of electric, radio-controlled and free-flying miniature airplanes discuss how to save the airstrip. They formed the Save Mile Square Park Committee last month, hired an attorney and have committed $15,000 to fight the county.

“This is my life,” said Doug Murphy, 70, pointing to the colorful model airplanes he spends his days designing, building and flying. “I build them at home and come out here and fly. I’m out here seven days a week. . . . If this place is gone, I’ll either move out of the area or have to give this up. It doesn’t seem quite fair, somehow.”

Only three public strips remain in the greater Los Angeles and Orange County areas: at Mile Square, Whittier Narrows near Whittier and the Sepulveda Basin near Burbank.

County officials began two years ago determining ways to recoup their $33-million investment in the park, said Rich Adler, chief of the revenue development section of the county’s Harbors, Beaches and Parks department.

The hobbyists, armed with mounds of research, have long campaigned against development. They have mailed letters to elected officials and attended public meetings.

The area concerned is the park’s so-called inner triangle, a 150-acre parcel of open space where the strip is located.

Before the county settled on a golf course, a variety of options were considered, Adler said. Among the ideas were using the space for a sports complex and bringing the Renaissance Pleasure Faire to the site permanently.

“We’ve been looking at the triangle to recoup our investment and provide valuable recreational opportunities in the park,” Adler said. “We studied a number of options, developed some great ideas over the years, but they were all shot down because they didn’t work economically.”

After about a year of intensified efforts, the commission will decide today which of two golf course proposals to accept. Groundbreaking for the 18-hole course could occur by late next year.

“What this comes down to is, in urban Orange County, [the model plane hobbyists] have had a great thing going for years for free,” Adler said.

The county needs to recoup some of its costs, and a golf course will accomplish that, he added.

Bob Richards, founder of the Save Mile Square Park Committee, countered that county officials are more concerned with earning income from a third golf course at Mile Square than they are with the hundreds of hobbyists who have poured their hearts and souls, not to mention years of their lives, into building and flying model planes.

Richards and other hobbyists argue that Orange County has more than 50 golf courses, both public and private, but only one public landing strip. There are two private strips available, but they can be used only by flying club members.

Adler said hobbyists are free to use the San Juan Capistrano-area landfill site known as Prima Deshecha. But that site has no paved landing strip, and hobbyists say it would cost more than $100,000 to create one similar to the strip at Mile Square.

Turning Mile Square Regional Park’s remaining open space into another golf course would use all but about 65 acres of its open space, with tees and greens replacing the current landing area.

Attorney David Sanner, hired by the hobbyists, pointed out that in addition to the airplane hobbyists, soccer teams, youth groups and even movie production companies who lease areas within the park for filming will lose out. “There are lots of other interested parties involved,” he said. Committee members are working to get such groups as the Boy Scouts and local Tet Festival organizers to join the Save Mile Square Park group.

Hobbyist Dick Drake, 65, dressed in a light blue jacket to guard against the morning chill, recently showed off the red and yellow free-flight airplane he built of balsa wood and rice paper. Drake closed his eyes, imagining what his world would be like without the camaraderie he finds three or four mornings each week at Mile Square.

“There would be no place to get out, walk around, meet people and socialize,” said Drake, who has been flying model planes for 53 years. “I could build them, but I’d have no place to fly. My hobby would be done.”