Fairview Park flying ban drags into third year as Costa Mesans continue to squabble

The civic process is often a slow one. If you want proof, ask members of Costa Mesa’s Harbor Soaring Society, who’ve waited three years to resume flying model aircraft at Fairview Park since its pandemic closure and subsequent reopening.

Or you might ask one of the City Council members who voted in September 2021 to allow for the temporary return of non-motorized gliders on the park’s west side while city staff prepare a master plan for the 208-acre park, but who have yet to see the mandate implemented.

Elected officials on Tuesday reaffirmed their desire to adhere to the vote made 18 months ago, before city staff and members of an advisory Fairview Park Steering Committee ostensibly engaged in a campaign to cease flying operations altogether.

The Costa Mesa City Council approved the temporary resumption of glider flights at Fairview Park in 2021. But instead of implementing the requested policies, staff moved for a ban of all activity near the park’s vernal pools.

(Courtesy of the Harbor Soaring Society)

“It’s not the committees that set agendas and it’s not staff, it’s the council,” Councilman Manuel Chavez said Tuesday at the end of an hourlong conversation, one of more than 20 public discussions so far held on the topic.

“For whatever reason … we didn’t really move forward with what we voted on,” Chavez continued. “The confusion in revisiting a vote we took two years ago has created delays in staff time that could have gone into other things.”

Although the 2021 vote asked members of the city’s Parks and Community Services Department to create policies and a permitting method to allow for the return of silent gliders at Fairview and identify alternative sites where flying might occur, staff instead returned to the council on March 21 with a recommendation for a permanent closure of the flying field.

They explained the park’s vernal pool ecosystem — a dry bed that, when filled with rain, rehydrates endangered fairy shrimp that attract equally protected bird and raptor species — could be harmed by flight patterns and the recovery of downed planes.

A Cooper’s hawk, seen in 2020, searches for prey at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa.

(File Photo)

Fairview Park Administrator Kelly Dalton and department head Jason Minter further told the council the activity was frowned upon by state and national Fish and Wildlife agencies and could result in the loss of grant funding given to the city for preservation efforts at the park.

Council members agreed in March to continue the hearing to a future date and on Tuesday, staff returned with a new recommendation calling for the temporary cessation of all flights until the Fairview Park Master Plan was completed. Started in February, the process is estimated to take about 18 months to complete.

That recommendation renewed debate from environmentalists and model aircraft enthusiasts, whose arguments have become well burnished through years of public discourse.

“I’m a little befuddled at why it’s taking so long to get to a decision,” said resident Jay Humphrey. “We have, clearly, a jewel in the city of Costa Mesa that has unique circumstances that you should be the stewards of protecting for my great-grandchildren as well as [yours].”

Harbor Soaring Society President Mat Garcia said members submitted a public records request for emails between city staff and wildlife officials and found what seemed like an effort to “solicit authoritative guidance from regulatory agencies supporting staff’s desire to close the flying field.”

Garcia said the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service actually supported efforts to reduce noise and intrusion into vernal pools, rather than an outright ban of all activities. He and others maintain club members are good stewards of the land and even participate in cleanup efforts at Fairview.

“We see a path forward,” Garcia added. “We are open to changes, but we felt it was important [for you] to provide us with a starting point of what needs to happen next.”

Council members voted 6-1 to take no new action, asking staff to proceed with the 2021 request while continuing the master plan process. Councilwoman Arlis Reynolds cast the lone dissenting vote, saying she’d prefer staff focused solely on the plan, rather than simultaneously drafting temporary glider rules.

City Manager Lori Ann Farrell Harrison told council members to expect new policy language for gliders in the next 30 to 45 days, even though flying cannot resume until the vernal pools dry out this summer.