On any given day at Costa Mesa’s 208-acre Fairview Park, you might find runners hitting the trails, naturalists searching for seldom-seen wildlife, people relaxing in the shade with a dog or a book, and pilots coaxing model aircraft into the sky and then back down to earth.
Radio-controlled planes have been operated at Fairview Park for decades, but depending on what city leaders decide this spring, their remaining days there could be numbered.
An agreement with the city that allows the Harbor Soaring Society, a club for model aircraft enthusiasts, to fly at Fairview is set to expire in June, so city leaders and a citizen steering committee for the park are considering whether model aircraft are compatible with other park users – including rare and endangered plant and animal species that live there.
“We realize that actually we’re guests here,” society President John Rittenhouse said, “But I think we provide a good value for the park.”
Active or passive?
“There’ve been competing interests since the ’70s, really, and the ’80s,” when Costa Mesa bought the sprawling parkland from the state, Fairview Park Administrator Cynthia D’Agosta said.
Most of the park is left natural and un-manicured by human hands, which has protected some wild creatures and invited back others driven away by surrounding urban development.
The inquisitive-looking burrowing owl and tiny, gray-feathered least Bell’s Vireo are among five threatened or endangered bird species spotted in the park. Vernal pools – essentially seasonal ponds – support the delicate fairy shrimp. Migratory birds enjoy stopovers at Fairview’s restored wetlands.
The park is “a very rare and unique combination of habitats,” D’Agosta said – and some supporters see protecting it as a top priority.
Although existing park plans (last revised in 2003) include amenities such as new restrooms, more parking and tot lots, an initiative approved in 2016 requires a public vote on most proposed changes to the park, aside from maintenance and restoration.
“I think the perception of what that open space is and can be used for has changed over the last 30 years,” said Andy Campbell, who chairs the Fairview Park Steering Committee, an advisory group. “Some of the active uses of the park may become less practical as restoration moves forward.”
History of flight
Two hobby groups have permits to use portions of Fairview: the Orange County Model Engineers, who run a 1/8th-scale railroad on a less-visited part of the park east of Placentia Avenue, and the Harbor Soaring Society, which uses about 1.2 acres just west of Estancia High School’s stadium as a staging area and landing strip.
The radio controlled aircraft club has been active in the area for more than half a century, Rittenhouse said, starting with gliders and later moving on to battery-powered models.
In the 1970s, developers wanted to build on the entire plateau where Fairview Park sits, but Soaring Society members joined with environmentalists and park neighbors to avert the bulldozers, he said.
But the installation of an un-permitted trail in 2013 drew more scrutiny of how various groups were using the park and put some former allies on the defensive. A state commission raised concerns about Native American artifacts, and bird watchers warned against activities that could disturb nests. Campbell noted that not all pilots are club members or have city-required permits to fly at the park.
It’s in this tenuously peaceful coexistence that pilots such as 83-year-old John Anderson now practice their hobby. A Harbor Soaring Society member for 11 years, Anderson said he’s been flying model planes since he was 6, and he now teaches drone piloting classes.
Anderson sees today’s model aircraft pilots, especially younger ones, as a potential public resource – their interest in aeronautics could lead to civilian or military aerospace careers.
That appears to be the path 15-year-old Jordan Lapin, of Tustin, is on. After seeing YouTube videos of people flying radio-controlled aircraft, Lapin bought a plane so he could try it. He now owns about 30 planes, some of which he launches at Fairview Park.
“Before I was flying, I was on my computer six hours a day,” Lapin said. “Now I barely touch it.”
Lapin said he’s gotten friends into model flying, and he’s now attending ground school to get a pilot’s license.
If they couldn’t fly at Fairview, some club members said Federal Aviation Administration rules and local restrictions leave few other places to go. Long Beach’s El Dorado Park is too far for some and several consider the louder, gas-powered planes that use a Trabuco Canyon flying field incompatible with their battery-driven models.
D’Agosta said the city’s ongoing study of who’s using the park, how and when – and whether they’re following the rules – should wrap up early next year and a report is expected at the steering committee in spring. The parks commission and City Council also will weigh in on the findings.
Until then, model pilots will continue to use the park’s small dirt airstrip to enjoy their hobby, because, as Anderson put it, “The quiet magic of silent flight is very seductive.”
