WSA_Youth and Family Master Plan Phase I - September 2009

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As park and field availability is limited, communities often have to take a very organized approach to facilitating shared and joint use. In Santa Ana, where demand is high and space is often in short supply, poor management of field use agreements has led to disagreements over which teams and sport leagues get access to which fields (Barboza, 2008}. Another area of analysis explored how the Parks & Recreation Department prioritizes park areas for reinvigoration and renovation. In particular, it is evident that more open spaces are needed within the areas of highest need than the city alone can provide with its current minor deferred maintenance and major deferred maintenance planning. Currently, there is not an allotted, ongoing budget directly for park improvements. Essentially, when the city wants to improve a particular park, it applies for grant funding either through federal, state or matching programs to fund it. This method has lead to certain recent projects such as synthetic turf in certain parks. The only constant funding stream for minor deferred maintenance received by the city is from the carnival promoters- hosting approximately 10 carnivals per year in Santa Ana. This gives the city approximately $67,000 in revenue for minor deferred maintenance annually. However, for 2008, the total cost for this upkeep was just over $1.5 million.19 Of the 36 projects identified in 2007-2009 for minor maintenance, two of them are within the most park-poor communities in Santa Ana. The Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) listing published by the city all have identified funding sources. Therefore, although the CIP project list annually cannot be used as aforward-looking planning tool but rather as a listing of what has already secured funding, it is useful to identify where the city is investing in parks. In terms of other funding streams targeted to park improvements, the Acquisition & Development (A&D) funds paid by developers in the past (on residential development only} have decreased in recent years. Currently, these A&D funds cannot be used for deferred maintenance, but only for new park developments based on the cities four zones and the park needs for each of these. From the City of Santa Ana CIPs for FY 2007-2008 and FY 2008-2009, we can see the following park improvements have been made. Table 3. City of Santa Ana Capital Improvement Projects (2007-08 and 2008-09) YEAR PROJECT AMOUNT LOCATION 2007-2008 Civic Center Bridges Renovation $289,000 Civic Center Fountain Renovation $645,000 Civic Center Parton St. Landscaping $100,000 EI Salvador Park Pool Renovation $88,475 Fisher Park Improvements $150,000 MacArthur Blvd. Bike Trail Enhancement $46,660 Memorial Park Pool Resurfacing $150,000 Park Improvements $400,000 Sandpointe Park Improvements $350,000 Santa Ana Zoo "Tierra de las Pampas" $92,000 Santa Ana Zoo New Lights $51,000 Santiago Creek Bike Trail Extension $655,280 Santiago Park Habitat Restoration $100,00 Santiago Park Trailhead Project $100,000 Thornton Park Playground Improvements $150,000 2008-2009 "Centennial Sanctuary" Peninsula Waterflow at $125,000 Centennial Park 19 The amount of funding identified for Major Deferred Maintenance for 2008 was approximately $23 million.