COMMON GROUND

Fairview Park is home to Orange County history, an endangered species, several human endeavors and some controversy about how and if it should be developed. Long before Costa Mesa was called Costa Mesa, the land now known as Fairview Park was a much different place. Still, signs of the park’s ancient inhabitants can still be found if you know where to look.

Tiny bleached-white seashell fragments are scattered along a dirt trail that runs at the top of the bluffs along the park’s west end. On a tour of the park Saturday, park plan administrator Robert Staples pointed out the historic shells to the ten or so people who came to see the park’s present and learn about its future.

The shells are likely evidence of Native Americans who once made the area their home, Staples said. He said members of the Gabrieleno tribe once scoured the ancient wetlands around the area for shellfish.

“They can trace back to 1500 B.C. the occupation of this land,” Staples said.

For about 90 minutes on a clear and sunny Saturday, Staples and Costa Mesa parks and recreation commissioner Robert Graham walked the trails of Fairview Park with the visitors. Along the way, Staples stopped at various points to discuss planned projects that are slated to be completed as part of Fairview Park’s master plan.

Costa Mesa will rely on grant funding to pay for the projects, Staples said. It could take seven to 10 years to complete the plans.

Another area where Staples stopped to talk about the park’s future was an area in the southwestern part of Fairview Park that looked like little more than a dirt patch. But appearances can change over time. In spring, the area fills with water and becomes what is called a vernal pool, which is a habitat for San Diego fairy shrimp, a tiny endangered species. The animals lie under the surface when the pools dry out.

“I don’t know if you were here in the spring, but it [the pool] is huge,” Staples said.

Costa Mesa was awarded a $225,000 grant in October to improve the area around the vernal pool. Staples said the project will include an observation deck and clearly identified trails designed to keep hikers from wandering into sensitive areas. Work on the plans is expected to begin next fall.

Being autumn, Fairview Park’s plant life is grayer and browner than it would appear during the spring or summer. But signs of life aren’t absent. The sounds of small animals rustling through plants are easy to hear while walking along one of the park’s trails, and a hiker has a good chance of seeing a brown squirrel or cottontail rabbit during a park visit.

Fairview Park isn’t a completely silent place for people either. On any given weekend, families visit the park to play catch or ride bicycles along the trails, or up and over the small dirt hills near the parking lot. The Orange County Model Engineers offer miniature-train rides on the east side of the park, and members of the Harbor Soaring Society fly radio-controlled airplanes above the greenery. The small aircraft’s engines issue a high-pitched whir, as if a vacuum cleaner was flying through the air.

CHUGGIN’ ALONG

The Orange County Model Engineers have been a part of Fairview Park for about 15 years, club president Kevin Tolan said. Club members operate 40 model locomotives, such as the black and orange-trimmed Rusty, which has a gas-powered engine and is painted to resemble a train that would have traveled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Line.

The model engineers started with a 600-foot loop track. Now, the Mackerel Flats and Goat Hill Junction Railroad (as the miniature track is known) consists of 20,000 feet of track that takes riders on a 12- to 15-minute journey through Fairview Park.

“This actually displays the wildlife,” Tolan’s 10-year-old son Jeff said. “We have big old hawks and snakes.”

During the spring, train riders are treated to a colorful display of blooming lupin flowers.

“The entire field turns a light shade of purple,” Jeff said.

The public can ride the model trains on the third weekend of the month. The model engineers offer rides for free, but accept donations.

LOOK IN THE SKY

The radio-controlled-airplane enthusiasts of the Harbor Soaring Society have found a place to play at Fairview Park for longer than the model engineers. Club president Karl Hawley said people have been flying model planes for more than three decades.

They pick up flying skills from some of the park’s smallest inhabitants, Hawley said. By looking for flying insects, soaring society members can find the rising air currents that can help send their models higher.

“If you’re flying a small hand launcher or another glider, you just go over there and follow the thermal,” Hawley said.

URBAN RESPITE

Fairview Park’s grassy 208 acres are a far cry from Costa Mesa’s urban office towers, suburban neighborhoods, bustling retail centers and the crowded streets and parking lots that surround them all. The mostly quiet park has no athletic fields, and like Upper Newport Bay, gives people a place to briefly escape the pressures of city life.

“It’s the last open green space in Costa Mesa,” park plan administrator Robert Staples said.

THE DEVELOPMENT QUESTION

But how quiet Fairview Park should be has often been a matter of debate. Costa Mesa purchased the park in the 1986 from Orange County to limit development at the park. Since then, people have debated issues including bike trails and where parking lots should or should not be. The park’s master plan was last revised in 2001. Under that plan, there’s no provision for any athletic facilities at Fairview Park, Staples said. Planned projects include setting aside 11 acres of parkland as a habitat for coastal sage scrub and developing a riparian habitat in the park.

“It’s a natural habitat we’re trying to bring to what nature intended,” Staples said. “Keep it natural; there’s not going to be any soccer fields or basketball.”

Graham disagrees with the idea that Fairview Park should be a completely passive park. In Graham’s view, Costa Mesans need more room to play sports, and Fairview Park presents a prime opportunity to build fields on city-owned land.

“Why couldn’t we include in that area a Little League field?” Graham asked.

Graham questions the wisdom of setting aside 11 acres of land for coastal sage scrub that he thinks would be a perfect spot for an athletic field. In September, Huntington Beach’s City Council decided to spend about $3.8 million to buy nearly 9 acres of land from the Fountain Valley School District to use for sports fields. To Graham, it does not make sense for Costa Mesa to decide not to use land the city already owns for athletics when a neighboring city is willing to spend a large sum of money to support sports.

Graham is much more excited with plans to build a cantilever bridge that would cross over Placentia Avenue, linking east and west sides of the park. Construction of the span is expected to begin within weeks.

“That’s going to be fantastic,” Graham said. “People can have access for Rollerblading, bicycling, pushing a baby carriage.”

Being such a large swath of open land, Fairview Park is the kind of place that can inspire a broad spectrum of suggestions. When Staples showed tour guests a spot where BMX riders jump their bikes from small dirt hills, he informed the visitors that the bumpy ground was not technically intended for bicycling.

Park visitors seemed to agree that the idea that BMX riders should not tear through areas not designed for bikes, but there also seemed to be consensus that riders should not be excluded from the park as multiple visitors echoed the phrase “Give ‘em a spot.”

After the tour, park visitor and Costa Mesa resident Dianne Goshen said she favored the direction the park appears to be headed.

“I think it should remain the way it is,” she said. “I like the natural feel of it.”

To date, Costa Mesa has found room in Fairview Park for model airplanes and trains, wild animals, hikers and years’ worth of proposals. In Graham’s expectation, just about anyone could imagine a new angle for Fairview Park.

“You get 1,000 people; you get 1,000 different ideas,” Graham said.

DAILY PILOTPLANES, TRAINS AND BICYCLES: Fairview Park’s open spaces provide many opportunities for recreation and an escape from city life.20051113hfrybzkfDAILY PILOT(LA)20051113hplpgokf(LA)20051113he4pvnkf(LA)20051113hsc53bkf(LA)20051113ipvbbgknCOURTENAY NEARBURG / DAILY PILOT(LA)Mark Gund, left, and Rick Cassera fly sailplanes at the park.