Parks commissioners favor finding compromise in battle over Fairview Park flyers

Members of the Harbor Soaring Society — who’ve flown remote-controlled aircraft at Costa Mesa’s Fairview Park for decades — hope to once again be cleared for takeoff, after city commissioners this week favored finding a compromise between them and environmentalists seeking their ouster.

The city’s Parks, Arts & Community Services Commission on Thursday was asked to weigh in on whether club members should be allowed to resume flying on a western portion of the 208-acre open space, where recreation historically took precedence over cultural and ecological interests.

But in recent years, as city staff prepare a Fairview Park master plan that aims to protect bird species and the vernal pools they visit, the future of the Harbor Soaring Society has been up in the air.

Citizen groups on both sides of the argument have been pleading their cases before the Fairview Park Steering Committee since March 2020, just before the pandemic shuttered city lands.

Club members drafted multiple sets of plans, promising to restrict hours, noise levels and the types of crafts that can be flown and create a training and a certification process for flyers seeking permits from the city. Steering committee members, however, remained largely unmoved.

“There are many flying community misconceptions that have been presented to this committee — just utter falsehoods,” FPSC Chair Andy Campbell told commissioners Thursday, using aerial maps to show land degradation near the flying field and citing studies maintaining aircraft harass bird species.

“We all on the committee thought…the people are nice people, and they do good things for the community. But the flying activity was just not a compatible use of the west side of the park,” he continued.

Campbell’s committee recommended in an April 14 meeting relocating the Soaring Society to the eastern end of Fairview, where a model train club operates, and closing the western flying field indefinitely. Such a move would require environmental review that could potentially keep planes grounded for years.

“Basically, the steering committee vote was to permanently evict us from the park,” HSS President Mike Costello said Thursday. “[But] with some modifications, flying can be continued with minimal effect on birds.”

Commissioners heard from several HSS members and environmentalists with the Sea & Sage Audubon Society and the Fairview Park Alliance before making their own comments.

Commissioner Angely Vallarta said she was concerned about how the city could enforce any rules or modifications that might be imposed on flying activities and said it seemed wiser to let Fairview Park recover from years of human use.

Vice Chair Cassius Rutherford said he felt the unilateral decision to relocate HSS and shut down the club in the meantime was unfair.

“It seems a little extreme to explore moving the fly field before we’ve exhausted the option of regulating it at its current site,” he said.

Ultimately, commissioners voted 4-1 (Vallarta opposed) to recommend to the City Council Soaring Society members work with city staff to implement restrictions and modifications that would meaningfully reduce impacts but continue to let the club use the western portion of the park while the feasibility of relocation was examined.

Club members were encouraged, in the meantime, to obtain a nonprofit status and consider how their activities might create a public benefit.

A favorable vote by the council would be required before the Harbor Soaring Society would be allowed back into Fairview Park. The council will hear the matter at a future meeting.

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