The iconic lakes at TeWinkle Park – a venue where many residents have made long-lasting memories, taken wedding pictures and senior year photos, along with family outings – will not be disappearing from Costa Mesa.
Instead, they are getting a much needed makeover.
Local resident Bri Mooneyham said the lakes are really special to Costa Mesa residents like her and that she celebrated her daughter’s birthday there and used to play softball in the nearby field.
“Its such a wonderful, beautiful and calming place to come to, of course, the ducks that are here, the kids love to see them, [the lake] is calming and I know a lot of people come here for walks, to read their books, to sit by the water. So I think it’s really special, and the city should keep the water,” she said at an interview at the park
“There is a lot of poop, but the ducks – that’s part of the charm.”
The nearly $2.5 million renovation comes as the roughly 2-acre water surface of man-made lakes, ponds and streams are seeping 1 million gallons of water a month costing the city $100,000 annually and amid high nitrate levels in the water due to goose and duck poop.
It’s a cost and challenges that led Councilmember Loren Gameros to publicly question earlier this month if it’s worth fixing the water system that offers over 3,250 feet of shoreline and how much it would be to fill the lakes instead and create a grassy knoll for families to use.
“This is a band aid on an open bleeding sore,” he said at the Sept. 2 meeting. “It seems like we’re spending a fortune on this thing and we could have a beautiful area for the constituents and families to recreate. We’re always looking for park space. Here’s our chance.”
“Boy, what a lake Scrooge,” Mayor John Stephens responded.
Stephens said if they don’t fix the lakes now, the problems are only going to get worse.
“It’s a great place. It’s almost borderline sacred place for Costa Mesa. We’re here to preserve it,” he said at the meeting.
Stephens said he’s against any proposal to demolish the lakes.
“This is a great neighborhood. It used to be my neighborhood, and they put up with a lot of stuff, and they like their lakes. Let’s give them their lakes.”
At the meeting, Gameros unsuccessfully called on continuing a discussion on rehabilitating the artificial lakes at the 49-acre park with support from Councilmembers Jeff Pettis and Mike Buley.
“We’re facing a structural budget deficit, we need to be careful with our money and think long and hard how we spend it,” Pettis said at the meeting.
Buley said they should survey local residents before making a decision.
“We constantly hear that we have a lack of green space, a lack of open space for kids and activities and whatever. And I’m hearing a lot of impassioned voices as to the sentimentality and purpose and the aesthetic value of these lakes and this park,” he said at the meeting.
“I’m not discounting that, but I think this is a significant decision.”
According to an analysis by Chapman University students, Costa Mesa has 3.75 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents – higher than the state standard of three acres of park space per 1,000 residents.
The analysis also found that about 66% of residents live within a 10-minute walk from a park.
[Read: Concrete Divide: North Orange County Falls Short on Parks]
In the end, city council members narrowly voted 4-3 to approve a $2.4 million contract with Houalla Enterprises to replace the lake liner to minimize leakage, deepen the lakes to improve water quality, repair the shoreline and add landscape to push waterfowl to designated areas.
The contract includes a 10% contingency – about $245,000 – for unforeseen costs.
Councilwoman Andrea Marr, whose district encompasses the park, said that many residents would come out and protest against filling the lakes if the council were to take up Gameros’ requested discussion.
“If we want to have a meeting where we get 300 residents of Mesa Del Mar to turn out and talk about how much they love the lakes, then we will do that, but I can assure my colleagues that this is a pretty universally loved amenity in the city,” she said at the meeting.
Money for the rehabilitation project will come in part from a $10 million state grant the city received from former state senator now congressman Dave Min in 2021. That same year officials allocated about $2 million from the grant to improving the lakes at the park.
The rest of the money will come from the city’s capital improvement fund.
Councilwoman Arlis Reynolds said the council doesn’t “blink an eye” at other similarly priced capital improvement projects and said it saddens her that city parks only get a small share of the city’s budget.
“Our parks are some of the most beloved places in the city. We don’t invest in them enough. We have the added bonus here of money that’s not ours, that we get to use,” she said at the Sept. 2 meeting.
“The lakes here at TeWinkle Park are iconic. These are things that generations of Costa Masons have enjoyed.”
The renovation project is expected to take nine months. It has been roughly 20 years since the lakes had their last major overhaul.
A Costa Mesa Landmark
TeWinkle Park was named after Costa Mesa’s first mayor, Charles TeWinkle, who moved to the area in 1920 with his wife, Goldie, and was elected after the city was first incorporated. The park was dedicated in his honor in 1965 – three years after he died.
City staff couldn’t find much on the history of the lakes, but said they were created in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
The lakes went under a two-year renovation in 2004 for nearly $1 million to address leaking, replace pumps and add a bridge, according to city spokesman Tony Dodero.
Earlier this month, a handful of residents spoke out against the idea of getting rid of the longtime lakes at the Sept. 2 meeting.
Resident Cynthia McDonald told elected officials that TeWinkle Park’s lakes have created local traditions.
“I’m sitting here at my desk looking at a photo of one of my children holding a tennis racket by the lake at TeWinkle Park. It is a tradition that Costa Mesa High School students have their senior photo taken in TeWinkle Park,” she said at the meeting over Zoom.
“It’s another tradition to take your kid to TeWinkle Park and let them get chased by a duck. I’ve taken my grandson over there. This is how they learn to respect wildlife. And getting rid of that lake is just not an option.”
Resident Jose Luis Gonzalez said the lake needs to be cleaned and it’s as much for the birds as it is for local families.
“The ducks here need this space.They survive off of this lake,” said Gonzalez, who visits the park at least three times a week.
“I like to observe nature here, it’s a very beautiful place, and it’s a place I am still getting to know.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.