TeWinkle Task Force To Meet Thursday

MOVING FORWARD
Tomorrow, Thursday, March 8, 2012, the TeWinkle Park Athletic Complex Task Force hold its next meeting at 6:00 in the Costa Mesa Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at the Police Department to continue the discussion about privatizing that venue. I reported on the previous meeting, HERE.

LOOKING AT "PLAN B"
At the last meeting the vendor representative from Big League Dreams, Jeff Hopkins, was charged with returning with a "Plan B", which preserves all four of the existing fields and still meets the parking requirements. Sure enough, on the agenda for tomorrows meeting, "Plan B" is listed. We'll see.

PARKING IS A BIG DEALAs with almost any endeavor in Costa Mesa, parking is the issue. During the last meeting it was clear that, based on Hopkins numbers, the venue falls short by more than double the number of parking spaces required to make it work. That was the reason Field #4 was abandoned in his plan - as shown in this photo - and that area used for parking and a batting cage. Across Arlington Avenue, our friends at the Orange County Fair and Event Center are also wrestling with parking issues and, at their last meeting, looked wistfully across Arlington as a possible solution to THEIR problem."CONSULTANT" OR VENDOR?
It's still unclear to me whether the City has actually chosen Big League Dreams as the vendor to develop this project. It was my understanding that they were only acting as "consultants" to the Task Force, to provide "industry insight" on this issue. I have to tell you, though, Mr. Hopkins sure did look and act like this deal was in the bag for them.

I'll attend and report back tomorrow.