YORBA LINDA : Council Endorses Plan for Lighted Park Fields

Plans to develop a 14.5-acre sports park on the east side of town have been endorsed by the City Council, but final approval of the project design was postponed until next month.

As outlined at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, the park--next to Jean Woodward Park--would include three lighted softball and baseball fields that could double as two soccer fields, two lighted tennis courts and two lighted basketball courts.

Many parents and representatives of several youth sports organizations said the park is needed to accommodate the growing number of children involved in organized sports programs.

Parents of players in the Placentia Yorba Linda Girls Softball Assn. are especially eager to see the park built. Currently there is only one field in the city set aside for girls’ softball.

“I have two daughters and two sons,” Jim Davis said. “On a good day, it takes 25 minutes to my daughters’ softball game but only five minutes to get to my sons’. I end up missing a lot of my daughters’ games.”

But residents of homes surrounding the vacant land where the park would be built say the noise, lights and traffic from the park will destroy their now-peaceful neighborhood.

Despite assurances from park planner Dick Fisher that the park would have state-of-the-art illumination to reduce “spillover” light in residential areas, many residents still oppose lighting the fields until 10 each night.

“Cut them off at 8 p.m. or don’t light them at all,” one resident said.

Even if the City Council approves the plan, the decision to build the park will ultimately hinge on how much money the city recovers from its investment in the Orange County bond pool, which includes the $4 million raised in a bond sale last year to finance the park.