ANAHEIM : Jeffrey-Lynne Park Work Begun at Last

Plans to turn Audre Drive into a park and community center for residents of the crowded Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood are slowly getting under way--too slowly for residents who have been lobbying for the idea for more than three years.

The play area, originally to be ready by the end of February, is now targeted for March completion, and a permanent community center is not expected to become a reality until summer, said Steve Swaim, superintendent of the city’s Community Services Department.

There is still a lack of money for the community center, which is delaying that project, Swaim said, but early construction for closing Audre Drive is under way.

“We are way behind schedule,” said Oscar Picazo, a resident who has been working to bring a community center to the low-income neighborhood since 1987. “I really think that we have been cheated in a way.”

Residents are further concerned by the city’s tentative plans to buy an apartment building on Audre Drive for the community center instead of buying and setting up a portable structure, as originally planned. Residents of the building, many of whom work in the nearby hotels around Disneyland, would be displaced, neighbors said.

Swaim said the city is considering both the conversion and the portable building and should have a decision next week.

“That’s one of the downsides,” said Swaim about possibly evicting the residents. “If you buy an existing structure, and there are people living there, then we have to deal with relocation.”

The city has been meeting with Jeffrey-Lynne residents and plans to meet with those in surrounding neighborhoods to discuss plans for both the park and the community center.

Some residents fear that the park may pose traffic and parking problems. Many residents cannot afford rents for garages and instead park their cars on the streets. Converting Audre Drive would mean fewer spaces on the streets.

Residents of Jeffrey-Lynne have also expressed concern that the park may become a refuge for gangs and drug dealers, if not patrolled regularly by the police.

However, virtually all residents agree that the park would provide sorely needed recreation space for the many children in the neighborhood and that a permanent community center would offer space for needed social services.

A temporary community service center now operates out of a neighborhood apartment on Lynne Street.