3 Community Center Plans Before Council

One of three proposals for a $17-million community center will likely be chosen by the City Council today.

“I can’t wait to start,” Councilwoman Cindy Greengold said of the project. “Our residents finally won’t have to go to Mission Viejo and other places to use their fields and facilities. We’ll be able to do everything right here in Laguna Hills.”

All three plans propose a sports complex with two soccer fields, a softball diamond and a baseball field. All fields have lighting. The community center also will have a skateboard park, a gymnasium, playgrounds and a library.

Greengold said the $17-million price projection could go higher, possibly to $20 million.

“We don’t want to omit something and be sorry later,” she said. “We’d hate not to spend that extra couple of thousand dollars. We want to do this right.”

In choosing a plan, council members will decide whether to keep the “town green”--an acre of open space in the 18-acre site at Alicia Parkway near Paseo de Valencia.

Keeping the grassy area would mean less room for parking and would require building a parking structure for 200 cars at a cost of about $1 million.

In a 3-2 vote last month, the Parks and Recreation Commission recommended that the parking structure not be included.