City hits home run with new sports complex

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Softball fans and other sports enthusiasts looking

for more places to play will soon get their wish at Central Park.

On Tuesday, the Planning Commission unanimously approved plans for a

new sports complex on an undeveloped portion of the park.

“This is a great project because sport fields and complexes like this

one are so desperately needed for residents in this city,” Commissioner

Tom Livengood said.

The sports complex project, which is estimated at about $16.8 million,

was initially approved by the city last year and will develop about 45

acres of land that forms an L-shape between Gothard and Goldenwest

streets along Talbert Avenue.

Plans include eight lighted softball fields, and each will accommodate

a soccer field, two playgrounds, a pair of concession stands and a park

maintenance building. Later phases of the project will create four roller

hockey rinks and a batting cage.

Some residents are concerned the new sports complex will be only for

adults.

“This would be a great place for us to play,” said Jorggi Delaney, a

regional AYSO commissioner, before the meeting. “We’ll get to use it six

times a year for tournaments, but we’re having problems now with

complaints from neighbors where we are, and if we were able to use this

location, which is in an industrial area, it would help a lot.”

City officials said plans for the complex have always been geared

primarily to adults, but that such a facility should free up city parks

and other recreational areas for younger athletes.

Although the park site was formerly used as a landfill, city officials

said safety concerns over hazardous gases and chemicals and soil

stability are being addressed.

Construction is scheduled to begin next year, and the first sports

fields should be ready for use in spring 2002, officials said.