Fairview Park survey will be combined with another

Last month, Costa Mesa Mayor Steve Mensinger proposed gauging public opinion on any future Fairview Park development in what he called a “community consensus survey.”

On Tuesday night, he didn’t get all of what he envisioned.

Instead of a community poll just about Fairview Park, his council colleagues opted to fold questions about the park into another survey related to an update of the Open Space Master Plan of Parks and Recreation.

The plan serves as a guide for new park development and management of recreation facilities; updating it will involve a comprehensive survey of community parks and recreation needs.

Speakers, primarily regular critics of the Mensinger-led council majority, were nearly all opposed to a Fairview-only survey.

Many also objected to any proposals to add athletic fields to Fairview Park’s southeast quadrant, home of the Orange County Model Engineers ridable train setup.

Speakers said they feared the loss of additional open space in the 208-acre park and the possibility that Mensinger’s survey would be biased toward the answers he wants to hear.

Former Councilwoman Wendy Leece called the survey “a colossal waste of time.”

Councilwoman Katrina Foley said Fairview Park isn’t a suitable location for athletic fields but that Costa Mesa’s stock of fields, owned by either the city or school district, need lighting so they can be used more.

“That is the message I’ve heard consistently for more than a decade,” she said.

Mensinger said the discussions about adding field lighting were a positive development, but noted that adding lights will be problematic because neighbors often dislike them. He recalled a fight to get lights added to the Jack R. Hammett Sports Complex.

Mensinger said he had hoped his survey would dispel some false rumors about the park being used for things like condominiums or a casino.

“There’s just a lot of rhetoric going around,” he said.

On March 17, the council is scheduled to vote on a roughly $160,000 contract with an outside consultant to update the city’s parks master plan.

That survey could be completed by late spring or early summer, said Public Services Director Ernesto Munoz.