Santa Ana announces addition of 22 new park acres!

City of Santa Ana, Downtown Orange County

Community: Santa Ana City Council Announces Improvement in Acres of Recreational Space

SANTA ANA, CA (August 20, 2012) – For the last twenty years, Santa Ana has had .9-acres of recreational open space for every 1,000 residents. In the last five years, the City has made great strides in planning and building new recreational open space opportunities, which are projected to add 22 new acres to the City’s park system. At the August 20th Council meeting, the City Council announced that the new open space ratio will be 1.48-acres per 1,000 residents.

Projects that will help meet this achievement are the following:

• The Willard Joint-Use Park construction will begin this December
• The expansion of the Jerome Park/ Monte Vista Joint-Use park was approved
• Approval to proceed with construction on the Joint-Use Garfield Community Center will take place this fall
• Three beautiful new parks by the Santa Ana River bike trail have been completed
• The McFadden/ Orange site, known as the Pacific Electric Park site, has cleared environmental review and will be developed as a new park
• McFadden/ Standard park and the new Downtown Latino Health Access park and center are new additions to the park system
• Approval to build a 1-mile extension of the Flower Street bike trail and connecting it to the City of Costa Mesa’s bike trail system will be taking place later this year
• The second community garden will be added at Madison Park and will be a Joint-Use facility with the Santa Ana Unified School District
• Planning and development of the Community Center and Park at Roosevelt/ Walker Elementary schools are under way
• Planning for the development of a 4-acre Eco-friendly educational park at Centennial Park

Mayor Miguel Pulido stated, “The significant increase in open space for our residents was accomplished because the city council had the vision and commitment to create healthy choices for our families. I am pleased to see that the City’s hardwork and dedication are paying off with the addition of more open space, which will be enjoyed by current and future residents.” This significant achievement enhances the opportunities to stay healthy by residents being able to conveniently walk or bike to their neighborhood parks.

“In Building Healthy Choices,” Councilmember Michele Martinez stated, “the people of Santa Ana need to be able to choose a healthy option that makes the best sense to them, depending on their physical condition and age.”

Councilmember Vince Sarmiento added, “Adding recreational open space has been a big priority to the City Council, and it is especially rewarding to reach progress through creative partnerships with non-profits and the School District.”

Councilmember Sal Tinajero stated, “Enhancing the quality of life in our community is essential and we are now beginning to see marked improvement in our park system.”

For more information, go to http://santa-ana.org/parks/BuildingHealthyChoices.asp

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Art Pedroza Editor

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

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