An Open Question

In Rancho Santa Margarita, the Boy Scouts wants to use part of O’Neill Regional Park for a recreation and training center. The Scouts’ opponents say the park is fine just as it is. In Huntington Beach, a group wants to build soccer fields or baseball diamonds. But devotees of open space say they don’t want any diminution in parklands that are already too scarce.

Orange County long has experienced tensions between developers whose vision for vacant land is a tract of houses and residents who see the same plot as perfect exactly because it has not been developed. But more recently there have been quarrels within the ranks of the no-development forces over whether a park should be “developed” or left in a natural state. Population increases are likely to exacerbate the quarrels.

It is only natural that a couple that move to Orange County and find themselves enjoying a nearby park decide after a decade and two children that there are too few ball fields for kids and the park would be a great place for such a facility.

But people upset by the heavy development of the county in the past few decades are right to battle for open space. As the saying goes, they’re not making any more of it.

The Boy Scouts recognizes the problem, and wisely wants to work to resolve differences. How the proposal for the development within O’Neill park plays out could offer lessons for other groups.

The Boy Scouts wants the four-acre center to teach youngsters an appreciation of the environment. The proposal calls for a swimming pool, archery and BB-gun ranges and two buildings, each about 2,500 square feet, that could accommodate as many as 300 youngsters.

The proposal has drawn fire from some who believe that a private, nonprofit group should not be allowed to use public land. Nearby residents have other concerns: An accessible oasis of peace and quiet could become a noisy, traffic-clogged horror.

The Scouts and area residents met in February. There were no solutions, but there were encouraging statements that the discussion produced greater understanding. It was good to see people trying to reach an accommodation in a civil manner rather than hurling brickbats at one another.

In Huntington Beach, the city and Orange County began planning several years ago for a regional park inland from the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Park planners, environmentalists and many nearby residents wanted the space left as natural as possible. Planting coastal sage and native vegetation was considered a possible method of luring animals back to an area where they once thrived.

But a number of coaches and parents wanted baseball and soccer fields, saying there were too few in the neighborhood. The City Council agreed to set aside six acres of the park for playgrounds, but vetoed ball fields.

Cities and counties find it cheaper to leave space undeveloped. Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park near Aliso Viejo costs about $124,000 a year to maintain 3,400 acres, most of it undeveloped. But 124-acre Craig Regional Park in Fullerton, which has baseball diamonds and basketball courts, costs nearly $500,000 a year to maintain.

Choices have to be made, and somebody likely will be disappointed. Stewards of the county’s open space and developed parks have the difficult task of mediating between contending interests. The job gets more complex as devotees of new forms of sport, such as skateboarding, ask for additional facilities.

Orange County has poured many miles of concrete and built many thousands of houses in the last few decades. Open space is at a premium now. How it is allocated challenges our best negotiating skills and willingness to accommodate the legitimate aspirations of others.