Fairview Park open space measure qualifies for November ballot
An initiative that would require Costa Mesa voters to OK various possible changes at Fairview Park cleared a major hurdle this week as county elections officials verified that the measure received enough valid petition signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
“We want to keep Fairview Park as a passive park, as natural open space to be preserved and restored for the public to enjoy,” said Richard Mehren, president of the Fairview Park Preservation Alliance, the organization that championed the proposal.
With the news from the Orange County registrar of voters office that the measure is eligible to go before city voters, “we’re on our way” to seeing that goal realized, Mehren said in a statement Wednesday.
“The battle’s not over – we have to get it voted ‘yes’ on the ballot in November. Otherwise, all this has been fruitless,” he added in a phone interview. “We’ll be campaigning hard for that.”
The City Council still must officially place the initiative on the ballot, where it would need a majority vote to pass.
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Supporters say the proposal would help preserve the 208-acre park as open space by requiring voter approval for several types of changes, such as expanding operating hours, installing additional lighting or building permanent structures.
Work that would not be subject to a popular vote includes maintenance, preservation and restoration efforts.
“Fairview Park offers a unique recreational opportunity and we’re elated this will be on the ballot for the voters to have a voice in what happens in the future at Fairview Park,” alliance member Jay Humphrey said in a statement.
In early May, the group submitted more than 7,100 signatures in favor of putting the item to a public vote, well above the 4,995 needed.
Of the signatures submitted, 6,025 were checked to verify that they were from registered Costa Mesa voters, according to the registrar’s office. The county didn’t need to verify more than 1,100 others because the measure had already exceeded the threshold to make it on the ballot.
The initiative is the fourth resident-sponsored measure to qualify for the Nov. 8 election, joining two about medical marijuana and one about growth control.
The growth initiative sponsored by the group Costa Mesa First would require some larger development projects in the city to get approval from local voters as well as the City Council.
The two medical marijuana measures would allow some dispensaries to open in town and would levy a tax on such businesses, which have been banned in Costa Mesa since 2005.
The City Council voted this month to officially place those three items on the ballot.
The council is tentatively scheduled to discuss whether to move ahead with its own competing measures on medical marijuana and growth at its meeting next Tuesday.
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Luke Money, lucas.money@latimes.com
Twitter: @LukeMMoney
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