City Grapples With Need for Parks, Playing Fields

Stretching more than 20 miles from east to west, Anaheim is a city of widely varying needs and demographics.

The western part of the city complains of an aging infrastructure and population growth, while the eastern section--Anaheim Hills--boasts posh houses and relatively new streets and shopping centers.

Despite these vast differences, many residents of east, west and central Anaheim agree on one thing: They need more parks.

“We’re not ungrateful to the city for giving us places to play,” said Patty Gaby, a director of coaches for the Canyon Hills Soccer League. “But it’s getting crowded.”

The leaders of the city’s youth sports leagues say that they manage with what they have, but that field space has become a priceless commodity.

Soccer, baseball, softball and football teams scramble for precious field permits so they can schedule games. Organizations have expanded the number of kids on teams to accommodate most everyone who wants to play. Coaches bargain with one another or stake out fields to secure practice time. Soccer players contend with stray balls from adjacent baseball games during practice.

The subject sparked a heated debate during the City Council’s June budget discussions. Mayor Tom Daly spoke forcefully in favor of funding more parks projects. The council had ignored the city’s need for new parks for too long, he said.

The council eventually approved the budget but set aside decisions on parks until the end of August. It directed the city staff to comb the budget and reserves for money to use for parks.

A new round of discussions is scheduled for the end of the month. The staff is expected to deliver a parks plan as part of a capital improvement plan that will include other infrastructure improvements.

The city has many parks--45 in all--but not all have fields. Some have only green space, basketball courts or playgrounds. The city turns to its seven school districts to help meet the need. But altogether, the city has only 38 fields to offer the 13,000 youth playing organized sports in 36 organizations. And that’s just the youth. Adult teams also use the fields.

What Anaheim Hills needs is a sports complex with at least four fields and a gym, Gaby said. She wants the city to buy the 24-acre Maag Ranch at a price of up to $10 million.

Organizers in west Anaheim, and for that matter those in the center of the city, say they need the same. Traveling long miles from one end of the city to the other isn’t feasible, they said.

West Anaheim leaders have suggested knocking down motels on Beach Boulevard to make room for more parks. Those toward the city’s center say an expansion of La Palma Park, estimated to cost $22 million, is overdue.

The council is guaranteed to discuss Maag Ranch and La Palma Park, but it also has other parks projects to consider: the expansion of Maxwell Park in west Anaheim, the building of gymnasiums in east and west Anaheim, the installation of lighting at several junior high schools to extend playing times, the construction of skateboard parks, the addition of two fields at Yorba Regional Park and the controversial proposal to build a new clubhouse at the Anaheim Hills golf course.

Getting council members to agree on the city’s priorities could prove a nearly impossible task. The council is already divided between those who urge fiscal prudence and those who say the city can no longer balk at buying and developing available land.

“It’s always a balancing act,” Councilwoman Lucille Kring said. “Parks is in my top five for priorities, but you have to be attentive to the whole city.”

Kring and Councilwoman Shirley McCracken said they favor cost-effective measures so that other capital improvement projects, such as new sidewalks, don’t get short shrift.

But the remaining three council members are taking a more ambitious approach to parks development. Councilman Tom Tait remains adamant that if Anaheim doesn’t take advantage of available money and land now, the opportunities will be lost forever. And Daly wants more projects put on the table. Councilman Frank Feldhaus is more cautious but said that parks and open space are “a high priority for the city.”

Regardless of how the council prioritizes, McCracken admits the decisions will leave some in the city unhappy. “We don’t have billions of dollars. I know we won’t satisfy everyone,” she said.

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Judy Silber can be reached at (714) 966-5988.