ATTENTION MESA VERDE RESIDENTS!! There is a movement afoot to develop a swimming pool complex at Tanager Park. This change would alter the quality of life in the area–and the “Upper Bird” streets would incur the greatest impact. Considering the existing limited entry/exit to the neighborhood, adding a significant amount of traffic to what already comes through could have further adverse effect.
Add to that 100+ parking spaces, restrooms and shower facilities, and, again, the traffic that will accompany this plan, and our community will suffer in a manner from which there may be no recovery.
Residents should attend the monthly Parks & Recreation meeting, scheduled for Thursday, April 27, at 6:00pm and let your voices be heard. And let your city council members know how you feel, as well!
Click the link below for a copy of the entire report.
Parks-Rec ReportSummary-March15,2017
Post Script: A Board member suggested that this writer “jumped the gun” when releasing this post, so yesterday (Wednesday), I “paused” it. I am re-releasing it today with the statement that regardless of where you stand on this issue, be sure to let the MVCI Board, Parks & Rec committee and the city council know. ~TRW
Mesa Verde Community, Inc. 
Yes, agreed! This thing sort of came out of the blue. Everyone who can should attend the Parks and Recreation commission meeting Thursday the 27th and speak up or send a letter to the commission as soon a possible so they have time to read and digest your comments before their meeting. Looking up the address now, will post in another comment.
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Genesis of this seems to be the late 2014 direction to city staff to cut an RFP to update that Open Space Master Plan. So Righeimer/Mensinger had a lot to say about this, as well as Parks/Recs commish Bob Graham (persistent proponent of Tanager Dr bike path). Remember: Bill Burke & co fought and got that Graham bike path killed. RJM Design Group was awarded an NTE $161,270 contract on 3/17/2015 to run through 3/1/2018 to do this update. RJM gathered up data, hosted meetings, made phone calls, and after almost 2 years, finally wrote up 86-page report, which was handed out 3/15/2017.
At the 3/23/17 Parks&Rec meeting, only 2, out of the 5, commissioners mentioned that RJM report and asked for public review/comment. Of those 2, commish Liz McNabb (at minute 27 1/2 of that meeting’s TV tape) pointedly mentioned that a new pool is suggested in Tanager Park in that RJM report, and that Hatch was going to meet with neighbors (MVCI?) later to get input. To date, no such Hatch meeting?
My read of the RJM report is that their “Program Needs” and “Program/Facility Demands” summaries don’t jibe. Under “Needs”, RJM cite 4 community workshops, a resident telephone survey, and participant activity (sports/rec orgs?) interviews, all of which do not identify any city-wide “swimming” need. Yet, “swimming” is assigned a #2 (next to highest) priority in the RJM program/facility demand summary. Why is that you say?
RJM report also mentions executive and analyst inputs, in addition to the above “Needs” inputs, as drivers of their final summaries. Would it not be interesting if the winning opponents of the Tanager bike path were punished for that win with a conversion of Tanager “neighborhood park” to Tanager “facility/aquatic center”?
Otherwise, can only conclude RJM had some sort of brain-cloud to single out Tanager Park for such destruction. i.e., RJM’s own data show there is no need for a pool in Tanager Park. Further, a quick look at Google Earth yields a count of 88 pools spread over the 330 or so SFRs in the Upper Birds, so this “suggested” Tanager Park pool is clearly not necessary for this neighborhood.
Ray Rakunas
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“…gathered up data, hosted meetings, made phone calls….” I don’t recall any meeting or phone call, nor do any of my neighbors. Did anyone in the neighborhood participate in any of this? If not, the data the consultants gathered couldn’t be very accurate. Excellent analysis, Ray!
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Tom Hatch was the featured guest speaker at the annual Mesa Verde Community Inc. General Meeting in March and spoke about a number of topics such as the proposed Library in Lions Park, the Mesa Verde median project, then had Q&A from the audience for about an hour. Tanager park never came up. I think Ms McNabb might have had some misinformation.
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Yes, there was phone survey, I got it,this was way before the last election. It asked mostly about Fairview Park and sports fields, absolutely nothing about any pool anywhere. There were about 4 community outreach meetings back then too, I went to most of them, another MVCI Board member said she’d gone to all of them, neither of us recall any mention of any pool anywhere, not any request from any other attendees.
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Contact your Parks commissioners here:
Kim Pederson Chair parkdistrict1@costamesaca.gov
Liz McNabb Vice Chair parkdistrict2@costamesaca.gov
Kristina Bogner Commissioner parkdistrict3@costamesaca.gov
Arlis Reynolds Commissioner parkdistrict4@costamesaca.gov
Leah Ersoylu Commissioner parkdistrict5@costamesaca.gov
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MVCI got some clarification yesterday from the City’s Recreation Manager yesterday.
From: “MARTIN, JUSTIN”
Date: Apr 20, 2017 12:25 PM
Subject: RE: Pool at Tanager
Hi John,
Happy Thursday to you
General Information:
The Update to the Open Space Master Plan of Parks & Recreation lists Tanager Park as a potential “opportunity site” for a future aquatics center and adjacent parking lot. To start, the document simply states that the footprint of such an aquatics facility could fit in Tanager Park, not that it will be a project that will ever take place in Tanager Park.
Staff has received feedback from residents and there appears to be a disconnect with the sharing of information between neighbors. I was contacted by a resident that thought that the City was literally about to begin building such a facility after the Parks & Recreation Commission meeting. I assured this was not the case.
An aquatics facility project at Tanager Park does not currently exist. •It is included in the Master Plan update to simply say that if there was ever an extreme need 10-15 years down the road, the footprint of the facility could fit within the footprint of the park.
•There are certainly other ways to increase opportunities for aquatic offerings and those are highlighted as well in the update (ie: include school pools in the Joint Use Agreement)
•If there were ever a plan to create a new pubic facility, anywhere in the City, there would be a tremendous amount of public outreach and studying done far beforehand.
Moving Forward:
The entire Update to the Open Space Master Plan of Parks & Recreation document will be discussed during the upcoming April 27th Parks & Recreation Commission meeting, which begins at 6pm here at City Hall.
Any comments pertaining to the Update to the Open Space Master Plan of Parks & Recreation can be made to the Commission during the “old business” section of the agenda.
I hope this provides some clarity.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks,
Justin
Justin Martin
Recreation Manager
City of Costa Mesa
77 Fair Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92628
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Thanks for posting the full text of Justin’s letter, Robin!
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Has Balearic Park been considered for an aquatic center?
Thank you
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Karen, I don’t think Balearic Park was ever under consideration for the aquatic center. I will send you a copy of the consultant’s report for your reference.
Rgds.,
Terry — Webmaster
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