Changing Course

Orange County planners are poised to turn Mile Square Regional Park into a golfer’s haven by adding 18 holes, wiping out the popular triangle area that model airplane enthusiasts and others have enjoyed for four decades.

County Planning Commission members said this week that they have some lingering concerns about the project’s environmental impact, and some commissioners conceded they were a bit uncomfortable about displacing so many park-goers.

“I’m really sorry that they’re losing their area. That’s a shame,” said Commissioner Shirley Long. “But [county] supervisors gave the planners a goal to reach, and that was to bring in some money and have the smallest impact on the area.”

The commission expects to approve the $8-million expansion of one of the park’s two golf courses at the end of this month, sending it to the Board of Supervisors for final approval. The park would then have a total of 54 holes. The expansion of the one course is expected to raise an additional $2.1 million in revenue.

“The board has [unanimously] approved it in concept already,” said Supervisor Charles V. Smith, the board’s chairman. “Now . . . all we’re going to be doing is voting on the environmental impact report.”

But some residents still don’t like the idea.

“It’s been our position that the county should not acquire land for park property for profit,” said Vincent L. Goodwin, a lawyer for the Save Mile Square Park Committee. “Their goal, when they acquire land, should be to offer diverse recreational activities for its constituents for centuries to come.” The committee’s chairman, Bob Richards, said remote-controlled model airplane and car enthusiasts aren’t the only people using the 137-acre section in the middle of the park.

The three paved aircraft runways that form the triangle are also used for land-sailing, police and fire emergency driver training, scale-model car racing, photography and commercials, special events and overflow parking. The triangle also has a helicopter landing area.

“The most important thing is, it’s open space that everyone can use,” Richards said.

The only use in the triangle that will survive the expansion is additional parking, but the Fountain Valley Recreation Center, which shares the park with the county, would gain a small chunk of the triangle for four softball fields, three soccer fields and other uses.

Still, hobbyists say there is no other public airstrip for them in Orange County.

Ben Nielsen, the Planning Commission’s chairman, said commission members had “some concern” about where the hobbyists would go. “What we heard was that they had to go to Los Angeles County,” he said.

But the commission’s job doesn’t include policy decisions on whether the park should be used for additional golfing, he said. That’s the supervisors’ responsibility, he said.

“We have offered continuously to try to find them another place to go,” Smith said, “but until they ask, we’re not going to look for them. It’s not fair to the rest of the county to hold that much acreage aside just for the use of the few.”

County planner Rich Adler said threats of litigation, voiced on the committee’s Web site, have not helped the committee’s cause. “Most people aren’t going to work with someone who is threatening to sue you,” he said.

Though the committee’s Web site makes litigation sound inevitable, the hobbyists’ lawyer said any plans for a lawsuit are very preliminary.

“At this stage, we are preparing for the worst, but we are praying for an amicable result,” Goodwin said. “If our intent was just to file litigation, litigation would have been filed a long time ago.”

The Planning Commission delayed action on the environmental impact report this week because of questions about the affect on ferry shrimp, red foxes, burrowing owls and pond turtles, and about potential fertilizer runoff, Nielsen said.

“All we’re doing is fine-tuning the environmental impact. There were some things, the commission believed, that were not in line with what we’re required to do by law,” he said.

“We want to make sure the proper procedure is followed so there are no holes in the environmental report that can get the whole thing slowed down or thrown out,” he said.

The commission also is concerned about the loss of overflow parking on busy days, such as Easter. In the past, 400 to 500 cars have parked on the three runways in the triangle. The proposal allows for 330 more parking spots near that area, but commissioners have asked traffic analysts to make sure there will be enough parking on even the busiest days.

Nielsen said the commission would likely approve the expansion at its April 27 meeting.

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More, Fore?

The golf course expansion that would take over the 137-acre triangle in the center of Mile Square Regional Park is nearly ready to be approved by the Orange County Planning Commission. The expansion, which county supervisors also must approve, would give the park two courses with a total of 72 holes. Hobbyists who have been flying model airplanes at the triangle for more than four decades say the area should be left open for all kinds of recreational uses, like walking, jogging and land-surfing.