Fountain Valley to waive fees for county-hosted events at Mile Square Park
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The Fountain Valley City Council has decided to forgo fees for county-hosted special events held at Mile Square Regional Park.
Councilmembers who supported the move, which passed 4-1, with Kim Constantine dissenting, largely point to a desire to strengthen the city’s partnership with Orange County.
The city will waive all special event cost recovery and permitting fees at Mile Square Park, up to $50,000 annually, through the 2030-31 fiscal year.
“We just want to send a message that we do support you,and we want the reciprocal support back,” Mayor Ted Bui said at the Nov. 18 council meeting, referring to District 1 Supervisor Janet Nguyen.
When the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in February to renew the 50-year lease for the Sports Park, it also agreed to transfer an additional 16 acres to the city. In order for the agreement to be finalized, the city must complete its parks master plan, while the county is working on infrastructure relocation and site improvements as part of a rehabilitation project.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors approved an amended and restated lease of Fountain Valley Sports Park, the city’s portion of Mile Square Regional Park. The city will also receive 16 additional acres.
Vice Mayor Jim Cunneen said he considered the additional acreage to be a gift, noting that the council had a chance to recognize that generosity in a way that would not “break the bank.”
“If you look at the value of land you can pull out your phones right now and just ask AI, ‘What is the value of Fountain Valley per acre?’” Cunneen said. “You can do that right now. It’s going to say $1.6 million or so, so $1.6 million times 16 acres, that’s on the order of $26 million. That’s huge. It’s been 20 years since a gesture like that came from the county.”
Mile Square Park, bordered by Brookhurst Street, Edinger Avenue, Euclid Street and Warner Avenue, was given to the county by the U.S. government via a quitclaim deed requiring the space to be preserved for public park and recreational use.
As part of the agreement, the county leased an initial 55 acres of land to the city on the 640-acre parcel on March 28, 1973. The rent-free lease was amended to expand the city’s portion of the park to approximately 78 acres on Feb. 15, 2000. Fountain Valley will now operate roughly 94 acres in total.
“I agree that the [Orange County] supervisor carries a lot of weight over what we get in Fountain Valley, and it just makes sense to do this,” Councilman Glenn Grandis said. “You may not like it. I can see your points, but if you look at the big picture of this, we’re going to benefit in the long run. The amount of funding that we get from Supervisor Nguyen in the future, I think, will more than offset what this cost is. Are we playing nice? Yeah, we’re playing nice.”
Applicable fees that may be waived include fire and police department support staff, community services special event permits, public works encroachment permits, and associated inspections. The Tet Festival could be one such qualifying event, said Community Services Director Rob Frizzelle, who added the county typically holds two or three special events with mutual impacts per year.
“I know the employees are not going to be taking a hit financially,” Constantine said. “It’s the city that’s going to take a tremendous hit financially. The county of Orange has a lot of money, a lot of our taxpayer money, and I don’t see any real interest in doing it. There’s no benefit here.
“I appreciate the extra acreage. I know we’re going to use it well, but I can’t forgive nearly $200,000. It doesn’t work out.”
