In Huntington Beach lately, it’s a fierce match of soccer vs. trees.
Soon to be forced off the land they’ve long claimed, AYSO parents and volunteers regularly line up at council meetings to beg for a new place for their kids to play.
Already, city officials were looking to update 48-year-old Edison Park, a 40-acre expanse that includes tennis courts, softball fields, a community center and a skate park. So, recently, they penciled in some soccer fields as well.
But the Edison Park plan approved last week by the Community and Library Services Commission — which would also add pickleball courts, a dog park and a pump track for bike riders — also would erase a chunk of leafy open space. And as residents learned about that, several spoke up in defense of something that would go away — trees. .
Mature trees fill Edison Park in Huntington Beach, CA, on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The two courts are closed because of land settling. AYSO is losing its longtime soccer fields on land recently sold by Huntington Beach City School District. Some Huntington Beach residents complained that a plan to add soccer fields and parking space to Edison Park would mean removing mature trees. On Tuesday, Nov. 16, the City Council agreed instead on an alternative blueprint that would save many of the trees by axing the proposed larger parking lot.
(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Mature trees fill Edison Park in Huntington Beach, CA, on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The two courts are closed because of land settling. AYSO is losing its longtime soccer fields on land recently sold by Huntington Beach City School District. Some Huntington Beach residents complained that a plan to add soccer fields and parking space to Edison Park would mean removing mature trees. On Tuesday, Nov. 16, the City Council agreed instead on an alternative blueprint that would save many of the trees by axing the proposed larger parking lot.
(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Tennis courts at Edison Park in Huntington Beach, CA, on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The two courts on the left are closed because of land settling. AYSO is losing its longtime soccer fields on land recently sold by Huntington Beach City School District. Some Huntington Beach residents complained that a plan to add soccer fields and parking space to Edison Park would mean removing mature trees. On Tuesday, Nov. 16, the City Council agreed instead on an alternative blueprint that would save many of the trees by axing the proposed larger parking lot.
(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Mature trees fill Edison Park in Huntington Beach, CA, on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The two courts are closed because of land settling. AYSO is losing its longtime soccer fields on land recently sold by Huntington Beach City School District. Some Huntington Beach residents complained that a plan to add soccer fields and parking space to Edison Park would mean removing mature trees. On Tuesday, Nov. 16, the City Council agreed instead on an alternative blueprint that would save many of the trees by axing the proposed larger parking lot.
(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Softball fields at Edison Park in Huntington Beach, CA, on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The two courts are closed because of land settling. AYSO is losing its longtime soccer fields on land recently sold by Huntington Beach City School District. Some Huntington Beach residents complained that a plan to add soccer fields and parking space to Edison Park would mean removing mature trees. On Tuesday, Nov. 16, the City Council agreed instead on an alternative blueprint that would save many of the trees by axing the proposed larger parking lot.
(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Two of the four tennis courts at Edison Park in Huntington Beach, CA, on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The two courts are closed because of land settling. AYSO is losing its longtime soccer fields on land recently sold by Huntington Beach City School District. Some Huntington Beach residents complained that a plan to add soccer fields and parking space to Edison Park would mean removing mature trees. On Tuesday, Nov. 16, the City Council agreed instead on an alternative blueprint that would save many of the trees by axing the proposed larger parking lot.
(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Basketball courts at Edison Park in Huntington Beach, CA, on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The two courts are closed because of land settling. AYSO is losing its longtime soccer fields on land recently sold by Huntington Beach City School District. Some Huntington Beach residents complained that a plan to add soccer fields and parking space to Edison Park would mean removing mature trees. On Tuesday, Nov. 16, the City Council agreed instead on an alternative blueprint that would save many of the trees by axing the proposed larger parking lot.
(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Two of the four tennis courts at Edison Park in Huntington Beach, CA, on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The two courts are closed because of land settling. AYSO is losing its longtime soccer fields on land recently sold by Huntington Beach City School District. Some Huntington Beach residents complained that a plan to add soccer fields and parking space to Edison Park would mean removing mature trees. On Tuesday, Nov. 16, the City Council agreed instead on an alternative blueprint that would save many of the trees by axing the proposed larger parking lot.
(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
More than a dozen tree advocates showed up to the City Council meeting of Tuesday, Nov. 16, to express their dismay.
“Unless a tree is hazardous in some way, no tree should be removed in this time of climate change,” a woman said. “We need every tree possible to offset our carbon footprint,”
Another speaker said she coached AYSO soccer for seven years, yet feels the city is trying to do too much in too small of a space.
“This is a community park, not a sports complex,” she said. “I understand we have a lot of young families in our community. Their needs have to be met. But so do (the needs of those who) want to enjoy green open space. We don’t have a lot of it left.”
Several AYSO supporters, meanwhile, extolled the virtues of soccer as a welcoming youth program in which, famously, “everyone plays.”
“South Huntington Beach AYSO serves 1,600 kids a year with over 200 volunteers,” said Region 56 commissioner Ann McCarthy. “All kids play, regardless of skill and ability. But we have fewer fields than any other (Orange County) city of comparable size.”
Before the heartfelt testimonials began, city staff already had gone back to the drawing board – hastily affixing an alternative conceptual plan to the agenda. “Option C” rubbed out 57 parking spaces, which would rescue some 20 large trees.
“After the agenda came out, we heard a lot of concerns from neighbors,” said Chris Slama, director of community services for Huntington Beach. “We wanted to be responsive.”
At the end of the long meeting, the council unanimously approved the revised rendering.
“Thank you for listening to residents and making some changes,” Councilman Erik Peterson told Slama.
The soccer field crisis started brewing in 2019, when Huntington Beach City School District decided to sell its site that once housed Gisler Middle School – shuttered in 1986, and later occupied by and Brethren Christian School. The 14-acre property on Srathmoor Lane holds two full-sized, lighted soccer fields – the only ones in Region 56.
On Oct. 19, the City Council unanimously OKed the development of a residential tract on the property. Brookfield Homes, which bought the land from the district for $42 million, plans to build 85 single-family houses there.
Brookfield has pledged $500,000 to find a different site for lit soccer fields.
Should the Edison Park conceptual plan survive as currently imagined, three 50-yard by 70-yard youth-sized soccer fields will be added to a strip of land along Hamilton Avenue. Owned by Southern California Edison, the grassy area sits underneath power lines.
Two more soccer fields would share grass with existing softball fields.
Option C also ditches the off-leash dog area.
The city promises to plant 200 trees, more than replenishing those that will be felled.
Even so, some grumble, it will take decades for the saplings to fill the shoes of the tall, shady veterans there today. Residents continue to complain on social media about the impending death of beautiful trees.
“The environmental impact is massive, and it’s going to have a huge ripple effect,” wrote one critic, listing the multiple bird species that nest or rest in the park.
In Tuesday’s meeting, Councilman Mike Posey argued that the city is “planning for future generations.”
“People say, ‘We don’t want those 50-year-old trees cut down,” he said. “But in 50 years, trees we plant now will be 50 years old.”
This post first appeared on ocregister.com
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