Mile Square Park Misinformation

* I would like to respond to your articles and subsequent editorial regarding Mile Square Regional Park by providing some background information and correcting some misinformation.

Last summer, the Board of Supervisors approved a land-use concept for the park which included a new 18-hole golf course, an expansion of the Fountain Valley Recreation Center and a multiple-use recreation area for group picnics and day camps. Almost all of new development will occur in the park’s center triangle area, which you correctly indicated is 137 acres.

The triangle consists exclusively of undeveloped land. It does not have any permanent park facilities, and it is not natural open space. Contrary to your articles and editorial, it does not contain archery ranges or soccer and baseball fields.

While hobbyists have been using the triangle for decades, they never had any long-term, formal agreement to do so. Also, the hobbyists were fully aware of the county’s intentions, when purchasing the property in 1992, to develop the area for non-hobby uses, as evidenced by a group of them working cooperatively with county staff to study alternative hobby sites in 1993 and 1994.

As described in a recent Times article, a number of the aircraft hobbyists, on their own initiative, developed a successful remote-controlled aircraft flying field on private land in Trabuco Canyon and are no longer using the Mile Square field. Statements that the triangle contains the only airstrip for model planes in Orange County are incorrect.

The county is willing to work with cooperating hobby organizations to investigate possible alternative hobby sites within the county.

However, the use of the triangle for such a limited activity as remote-controlled aircraft flight--with its extensive air space requirements--is inconsistent with the county’s objectives for an urban, heavily utilized regional park, such as Mile Square.

CHARLES V. SMITH

Supervisor, 1st District