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Santa Ana Finds Ways to Increase Open Spaces, Park Land
December 3, 2010
Santa Ana has always gone out of its way to be a green, environmentally friendly city.
Now city officials are working hard to make the community even greener by finding new ways to create neighborhood parks and additional recreational resources for its 355,000 residents.
Over the past several years the city has expanded existing parks, added tens of thousands of square feet in recreational amenities, lengthened bike and hiking trails and opened three new park sites totaling more than 12 acres.
But with budgets drying up and developable park land scarce in one of the oldest communities in Orange County, city officials have had to think outside the box to bring recreational resources to its residents.
That has included teaming up with the Santa Ana Unified School District to make 10 acres at Willard Intermediate School available to the public. Funding for the joint-use project came from a $4.4 million award from Proposition 84 park funds. The award comes from $182 Million in awards that were issued throughout the state and Santa Ana is proud to have receive two awards. The second park is due to Latino Health Access also receiving from this Grant Program a $3.5 Million award to build a park and center in the Lacy Neighborhood.
The city also has partnered with the school district to build the 10,000-square-foot Garfield Community Center with the help of a community development block grant from the federal government.
Santa Ana has a little more than one acre of public park land for every 1,000 residents. City park officials would like to see that ratio higher but concede that building traditional parks in a city without a lot of open space is difficult.
Rather than think big, Santa Ana is thinking smaller, as in pocket parks. The city and a church group have created a park from less than an acre of private land at Standard Avenue and McFadden in central Santa Ana.
This new pocket park came to fruition because of the tremendous support and cooperation from city officials, non-profit agencies, and the private sector. This project was the result of months of planning and close collaboration with Santa Ana Councilman Vincent Sarmiento, the City of Santa Ana, Carver Construction, The Grain Project, the private property owner and the local residents of Cornerstone Village.
“It’s not been easy but everyone in City Hall recognizes the need for more open space and is working hard to bring more recreational resources to the community,” Sarmiento said.
Parks Director Gerardo Mouet said the city is trying to make it possible for a park to be within a half mile all the residents in the city.
The city is also working with the community to carve out a 1.4 acre park at McFadden and Orange (Pacific Electric Site) to increase the amount of open space in Santa Ana.
The city also has allocated more than $3.5 million to enhance the Santa Ana River Trail, bike trails along Santiago Creek and Flower Street that now connect to trails in neighboring Costa Mesa as well as build a wildlife center and amphitheater on Santiago Creek.
“There isn't a lot of money available for developing new parks in our city," Councilwoman Michele Martinez said. “But open space has been a top priority for the City Council and we looked at other fund opportunities to enhance the city’s recreational resources.”
Founded in 1947, Santa Ana Parks, Recreation and Community Services Agency is responsible for maintaining, managing construction, and programming 17 recreation buildings (including two senior centers), five swimming pools, 41 parks, and 11 bicycle trails. Its FY 10-11 budget is $16.2 million. The Agency has 68 full-time employees and during the summer has as many as 196 part-time employees. The Agency also oversees the library system and the Santa Ana Zoo.
