It’s tough for Santa Maria Valley athletes to find a place to play. There aren’t enough fields to accommodate the numerous teams, there aren’t enough lights to make the fields playable in the early evenings, and the fields that teams do use are often not in optimal condition because they also act as retention basins or elementary school playgrounds. Teams may not have room to play right now, but several sports organizations are hopeful that will change soon.
City officials are seeking solutions that would allow more teams to use current fields, attempting to identify other fields in the area that teams can also use for play, and pursuing funds for a potential multi-field sport complex.
Alex Posada, director of the Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department, said that officials have been aware of the city’s lack of playing fields and have been working on it for some time. In fact, in March the City Council identified finding more playing fields as a city priority.
In September, the Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Commission discussed the city’s well-known shortage of sports fields, ultimately deciding to form a Multi-Sports Field Complex Committee and seek approval from the City Council to pursue a $1 million state grant to develop the multi-field sports complex that would ultimately add seven more soccer fields to the city.
Last month athletes and members of the community gathered at a City Council meeting urging the councilmembers to give approval for Recreation and Parks staff to pursue the
$1 million state grant.
At the meeting Posada said that the effort to add more fields to the city was largely prompted by a collaboration with One Community Action Commission and its mission to curb youth violence by getting more kids into playing sports. He said that because of that mission, the city fits the grant’s criteria.
“The grant is to be used to fund new soccer and recreation opportunities, and it’s to focus on urban cities that have youth violence issues and youth low employment numbers. So we fit right in,” Posada said.
The city’s staff recognized the lot adjacent to the Adam retention basin on Stowell Road as the most optimal location for a multi-field complex. The field has typically been used for agriculture, and Posada added that the city’s staff is currently in talks with the owner of the property.
If the city receives the state grant it would cover Phase 1, which would include the development of two soccer fields, restrooms, parking, a water retention basin, and a small maintenance yard, on about 8 acres. The completion of Phase 1 would add to the six fields already used at Adam basin, the two fields on the Adam Elementary School campus, and the Minami baseball field that is sometimes used as a soccer field.
“We’re going to have to try and eat the elephant one bite at a time. This is one of the bites, the way I look at it,” Posada said.
Phase 2 will add three fields, parking and a larger retention basin, and Phase 3 would add two more fields and a parking area. Posada emphasized that the complex is just conceptual right now, but that it’s progress.
“I think the project is a first step in addressing the concerns of the community,” Posada said.
There were a number of speakers at the meeting who expressed support of a potential sports complex as a way to get kids off the streets and out of trouble, but also because there is simply no more land on which to play.
“It is very much still putting a Band-Aid on a head wound. I would fill those fields tonight,” speaker Michael Borges said.
Borges is president of Coastal Valley Soccer Club, which has about 9,000 youth and adult members. Adding to the problem of limited fields is a lack of lighting. He said that with the time change it gets darker earlier, making it difficult to play on fields that don’t have lights.
“As you can see this is just the beginning of what is possible and what we need,” Borges said.
Cynthia Gudino said that there are community members ready to donate money to make the complex a reality. She added that the current fields, like the ones at Adam Elementary School, aren’t adequate and that she doesn’t want to see kids get hurt.
“We need to invest in them,” Gudino said. “This is our future, this is the future citizens, our future voters, I’m sure they are ready to get out there and kick the ball in a new state-of-the art complex.”
Jesus Espinosa told the council that for his job he drives from San Luis Obispo to Carpinteria, and along that drive he has taken note of the lack of sports facilities.
“It’s sad to see. I can mention five cities right now that have a dog park but they don’t have a complex to play soccer,” Espinosa said. “That makes everything look like the dogs are more important than us, than the kids. These kids are going to end up on the street because they’re not going to have a place to go play.”
While sports enthusiasts anxiously await more fields, most applauded the City Council and the city’s staff for its efforts at moving forward in identifying more places to play. A new complex will be a longer wait, however. Posada said it will take the state six to eight months to process the application, and that he doesn’t expect to hear back until late spring or early summer of 2017.
Send sports info to Editor Shelly Cone at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2016.