Laguna Niguel Staking Out a New Turf

The days of playing soccer and other sports on real grass may be numbered in Laguna Niguel if city officials are pleased with a Mother Nature knockoff they plan to install at two new parks this year.

Instead of planting the real thing, the city will be installing synthetic turf at La Paz Park and Alicia Skate and Soccer Park, which will have lighted playing fields for soccer and baseball. But it won’t be your father’s AstroTurf. This is a new generation of synthetic grass--one that looks, reacts and, some say, even feels like the real thing.

But no more grass rash or green knees, and no more muddy clothes after rainy days. No, there won’t be the smell of a freshly groomed field. Still, that could be a good thing, especially for hay-fever sufferers.

To hear some talk, it’s the best thing since, well, God created real grass.

And the manufacturers will tell you it’s even better for the environment than the real stuff. It doesn’t need watering; it doesn’t require any chemical pesticides. And the pulverized rubber they use as an underlying cushion makes use of tires otherwise destined for a landfill--about 50,000 for every field, said John Henderson, the national sales manager for one brand the city is considering.

Various versions of this new-age turf already are being used in sporting arenas elsewhere in the country. The turf’s popularity is beginning to grow in California--mainly in the northern part of the state. In Southern California, a handful of organizations and schools have made the switch. Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences and Carlthorp School, both in Santa Monica, installed synthetic turf in their playing fields late last year. And La Jolla High School and the Oceanside Boys & Girls Club have been playing on theirs for a little more than year.

“It’s been working great,” Boys & Girls Club soccer director Tony Paopao said. “The kids absolutely love it.”

Laguna Niguel will be the first city in Orange County to use synthetic turf in a public park. A private school in Orange, Lutheran High School of Orange County, will be outfitting its athletic field in time for the Aug. 1 start of football practice.

The attraction, city and school officials say, is the durability the synthetic stuff offers without the abrasions and injuries common on the original AstroTurf. In the long run, they say, it’s cheaper.

On average, the new turf costs about $6 a square foot and requires very little maintenance--about an hour a week to fluff the fibers. Grass costs about $2 a square foot, but the maintenance and replacement costs associated with the real thing make it more expensive to use, said Ken Montgomery, Laguna Niguel director of public works. There’s the fertilizing, the mowing, the watering. And then it doesn’t last long.

“We can’t keep our night-lighted soccer fields green for more than three months because so many teams are using them,” Montgomery said. “We wind up with crummy fields for nine months out of the year.”

Lutheran High has the same problem.

“We have one field that is used for everything--football, baseball, soccer, softball,” said Kenneth Ellwein, the school’s executive director. “We knew we had to get into some kind of artificial surface because the field just gets ruined every year.”

What’s more, the new fields are supposed to be flood-proof. A drainage system underneath the padding is designed to keep them free of puddles. And since there’s no dirt, the fields won’t become a quagmire of mud after a heavy rain.

Montgomery said some Laguna Niguel officials are expecting the new fields to be so popular for year-round play that the city will want to install synthetic grass in other night-lighted fields.

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Is this just too good to be true?

Lolly Keys, an American Youth Soccer Organization spokeswoman in the group’s Hawthorne headquarters, is skeptical the fake stuff is all it’s cracked up to be. Still, if it will allow year-round play, it’s worth a try, she conceded.

About 3,300 kids play in Laguna Niguel’s AYSO region--one of the largest in the country, she said. With so many teams, it can be tough finding a field to play on, she added.

“If we could choose, naturally we’d rather have the kids play on regular grass,” Keys said. “But if we have to balance that against not having enough playing fields, well sure, synthetic turf would be the way to go.”

It’s good enough for the pros.

The New York Giants football team last year replaced the AstroTurf on its practice field, called The Bubble, with the newer brand. Bill Squire, general manager and vice president of Giants Stadium, said the new turf has scored high points with the players.

“What the players say they like most is that it’s softer and gives more than the AstroTurf, and it relieves the stress on the ankles and hips and joints,” Squire said.

The University of Kansas installed the same artificial turf in its stadium last year and is just as happy with its performance.

“AstroTurf would stick and grab,” said Katy Grindberg, an athletic trainer at the university. “This stuff slides like grass. It reacts like grass. Our soccer team’s been practicing on it, and they love it.”

Closer to home, the soccer team at Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica began playing on the newer type of turf in December.

“It’s been great,” said Crossroads Headmaster Doug Thompson. “It’s an interesting product. In many ways it resembles turf a lot more than any other product I’ve worked with, and it’s impervious to weather. Our varsity soccer team has played two or three away games on our field because the other teams couldn’t get onto a field that wasn’t under 2 feet of water.”

That’s why cities such as Seattle and Portland began installing synthetics in their public playing fields several years ago.

“I think it’s the best thing that we have ever done,” said Ron Boley, a former recreation supervisor for the city of Portland.

There are, however, some things the synthetic turf isn’t good for--say picnicking or sunbathing.

“It’s a playing surface, not a lawn,” Crossroads’ Thompson said. “It would be like having a picnic on a bunch of old tires.”

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Fake Fields

Laguna Niguel is considering using synthetic grass for the planned Alicia and La Paz parks. A look at the turf: