What Do We Build and Where Do We Build It?

Earlier this week we discussed the 2nd Whispering Hills workshop which ended in a draw between 3 sets of competing interests. The consultants are taking this “hot potato” and passing it on to the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC), but I believe there is some homework that needs to be done before.

(First, some disclaimers. I have 2 dogs, but they are too old now to enjoy the benefits of a dog park, although in theory I am in favor of the Dana Point model of neighborhood dog parks. I am also an avid Gardener, my wife is a Master Gardener and former President of the Lake Forest Garden Club, and we like the general idea of community gardens. As far as arena soccer is concerned, I have no acquaintance with the sport, and at my age, no compelling interest.)

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Before we can decide what to do with the Whispering Hills space, we need to look at all the land that is available and all the needs we foresee for the City residents. I have been urging this analysis for some years, and recently was joined by my fellow Council members who asked that the City Manager put this on our schedule so we could discuss. IMO this is Step #1.

How can we plan for Whispering Hills (or any other place) without knowing what our assets are and what our needs are?

The City has several vacant land parcels and in addition it has several under-developed areas. It also has some potential areas where development could take place. In order of size, here’s what I think we have –

• · Normandale Park
• · The new Civic/Senior Center land
• · El Toro/ Railroad property
• · Whispering Hills
• · The park area along the 5 freeway
• · End of Ridge Rte
• · A small piece near El Toro and Jeronimo

If this is what we have to build on, the next question is, “What do we want to build?”

Determining what we “need” to build is not as easy as finding out what we have to build on. One persons’ need is another persons’ luxury. But let’s see if there is a consensus about what should be built. We can do that in several ways…

RESIDENT SURVEY

In the most recent Satisfaction survey (Feb 2015) residents rated as “high” or “medium” priority -

• · Provide off-leash dog park facilities – 56.1%
• · Provide a community swimming pool – 54.4%
• · Provide community gardens – 51.6%
• · Provide activities like roller skating, roller hockey, arena soccer – 48.4% (Note that this item includes several amenities so it’s difficult to know how popular any one of these amenities is)

By Age

Looking at the results by age, the dog park appealed to people at all age levels whereas the community pool was favored by younger people, and the community garden and “other” activities by middle-aged people (30 to 49). The most highly sought after amenity was a swimming pool by people 30 to 39 (44.3% rated it “high” priority) and the least desired was “other” activities by people 65 and older (13.1% rated it “high priority).

By Area

Compared to other areas of the City, people who lived in Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills were less likely to want a community swimming pool, a dog park, or “other amenities, but more likely to want a community garden. People who lived in the “middle” of Lake Forest (between the 241 and Trabuco) were more likely to want a community swimming pool. People in Lake 1 and Lake 2 area were more likely to want a dog park and less likely to want a community garden. Looked at in this manner, here is where various amenities would be situated if they were based on the resident survey –

• · Dog park – Southwest (Lake 1 and Lake 2)
• · “Other” activities – Southwest (South of Ridge Rte, West of Trabuco)
• · Community garden – Foothill/Portola
• · Community pool – Middle of the City

It’s interesting that each part of the City seems to favor a different amenity.

What’s also interesting is that there is vacant or under-developed City land in all these areas as well. If resident desires were matched with available land, here is what we would be doing –

• · Community garden in Normandale
• · “Other” arena in RR property
• · Community pool in Whispering Hills
• · Dog Park at end of Ridge Rte.

Of course resident desires and available land is not the sole criterion to be used, but it does offer some suggestions. All things equal, why not put resources close to the people who want to use them?

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Comparative analysis lets us look at what other cities provide and compare that to what our City provides. The assumption here is that if there is a uniform provision of services, and if we don’t conform, we should be looking at why. This process has many pitfalls, but it is often used by City staff when making decisions. For example, the City’s Recreation Department has a standard of acreage vs. people which they use.

Dog Parks

Most of our neighbors have a dog park. Most of these cities use a single park to serve all the residents (Irvine, MV, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Mission Viejo). Only one city (Dana Point) uses the “neighborhood dog park” concept, with 5 strategically placed parks serving the City.

There are 9 cities with dog parks in our immediate area. In terms of population, based on 100,000 residents, they range in size from Laguna Beach (10.7 acres) to RSM (0.9 acre). The average acreage devoted to a dog park based on 100,000 residents is 2.2 acres. IOW, for every 100,000 residents, the average city devotes 2.2 acres for a dog park. On this basis, Lake Forest has allocated 1.1 acres for our 80,000 residents, or 1.37 acres per 100,000 residents. So there would appear to be room for at least another acre.

Arena Soccer

Most cities don’t have an arena soccer area. As far as I can tell, only 3 cities in OC have one, and all 3 of them have more people than we do. Such a scarcity of arena soccer facilities suggests that arena soccer is not a very popular activity and appeals to a limited audience. Alternately, there may be an opportunity for a sport that has a population base that is under-served. To know for sure, one would have to do an analysis of the current activity levels at the 3 existing areas.

But arena soccer is not the only amenities included in the City survey which included it along with roller skating, roller hockey, etc. So there needs to be some clarification. Exactly how many people support this particular activity? Is it possible to build a sports arena that serves many purposes?

Community Garden

Looking at community gardens, most cities don’t have a community garden, and among those cities that have them, they are not necessarily city-owned. Looking at community garden education centers, there are even fewer. Once again, the paucity of these amenities suggests that there is not widespread desire. Alternately, there may be a wide spread desire but the problems (or costs) in creating such amenities has caused most cities to avoid implementing them.

DELPHI ANALYSIS

Delphi analysis places the decision making process with a group of “experts” who systematically examine the problem and by going through a series of structured exercises, comes to a synthesis. This can be an effective process, but it requires sufficient data for it to work, and much of the data to support either the community garden or the soccer arena is not present.

Next time I will summarize. But the bottom line seems to be that we are not in a position to go forward at the moment, and I’ve tried to offer some suggestions as to how to better prepare ourselves for the decision making process. But in my mind the first step is the global analysis of our assets and our needs.

COMMENTS

It came to my attention that at times the COMMENTS section of the Patch doesn’t work. I have no control over this. I can neither enable nor disable the Comments section nor can I delete or edit other people’s work. If you encounter this problem, please notify the Patch. If you want to discuss the issues raised in these articles you’re welcome to join more than 300 of us at Lake Forest Town Square, or you can e-mail me individually, come to my office hours, or attend my Town hall meetings.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 3 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a town hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on August 15 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.

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