Ladera Ranch Park Off to Running Start

For almost a year, Stephen Roney and the two Ladera Ranch adult softball teams he plays with have had to load their cars with equipment for a 15-minute drive deep into neighboring Mission Viejo for their games. Their home games.

Now, with the opening today of the county’s first new sports park in nearly 20 years, Roney and teammates will be able to walk to their practices and games. Their home field will be one of two adult regulation softball fields at the new Ladera Ranch County Sports Park, a 24-acre facility at Crown Valley Parkway and O’Neill Park Drive, built on land that was once part of the 30,000-acre Rancho Mission Viejo, the county’s only remaining cattle ranch.

The 84-acre Ralph B. Clark Regional Park in Buena Park, which opened in 1981, was the last sports complex the county built. And while the county has carved out other chunks and slivers of parkland over the years, none came with playing fields or athletic facilities, said county parks Supt. Tim Miller.

*

The $4.7-million Ladera Ranch facility also has two youth baseball fields, five soccer fields--one of which is professional size--a picnic area and a playground.

There are lights on all of the fields and the adult softball diamonds have grandstands. The park also has a concessions stand, a manager’s office and restrooms.

It’s something Roney and his players have been waiting for since he formed the softball squads last year, after he moved to Ladera Ranch from Santa Clarita.

“For some of our players, the new park is like a five-minute walk,” said Roney. “And even for the people who live farthest away, it’s still only going to be like a 15-minute walk.”

Ladera Ranch, tucked along the eastern flank of Mission Viejo, is one of the county’s newest and fastest-growing communities. By the time it’s developed, probably within the next 15 years, the community could have a population of more than 20,000, said Diane Gaynor, a Ladera Ranch spokeswoman.

But it won’t just be Ladera Ranch residents using the park. County officials expect it will draw residents from Las Flores, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and Coto de Caza as well.

“Thank God [the county and Mission Viejo Ranch] built it because it’s needed,” Miller said. “They could have just put in a little, small turf park and picnic area, but obviously the county saw the need.”

Eight teams are already scheduled to play there on opening day. The Viejo Little League, which includes about 100 kids from the sprouting community, is one of them.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” said Bob Serafini, the player agent for Viejo Little League. “It’s going to be great to be able to have a field that’s lighted. It’s going to relieve the demand for playing fields in this area.”

*

The Viejo Little League now plays at Gilleran Park in Mission Viejo, a city that is dotted with baseball, softball and soccer fields. But the new Ladera Ranch sports complex is the only park in South County to have multiple fields for all three sports.

“To have all of these fields at one site is unique,” said Don Cuzick, recreation services manager for the Recreation and Community Services Department at Saddleback Unified School District, which will manage the Ladera Ranch park. “Laguna Hills did open a park that has one soccer, one baseball and one Little League field, but this park has more than double the number of those fields. Nowhere else in the Saddleback Valley is there a facility like this.”

Park officials will limit field use in the spring so the young turf can take root, Cuzick said. But the Viejo Little League has already begun scheduling games, as have several adult softball leagues. Youth soccer games, Cuzick said, won’t be scheduled until fall.

The Richard O’Neill and Anthony Moiso families, who own and developed Ladera Ranch, will dedicate the park today.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

All-Sports Park

The $4.7 million Ladera Ranch County Sports Park in south Orange County will be dedicated on Saturday at 9 a.m.. The 24-acre park, built on land that was once part of the 30,000-acre Rancho Mission Viejo, is the first park the county has builtin almost 20 years.