The good news for Orange County, California, is that when you've got 1,347 acres to work with, there's room for almost everything. The bad news is, it takes a while to work through all the demands. It's been seven years now since Orange County decided to build its "Great Park" on the site of a former Marine Corps air base. In February, the park's governing board finally approved a comprehensive park design. Last month, the board voted on the first round of construction work, which is to include bulldozing a lot of the flat, runway-crossed land into its new topography, as well as constructing eight soccer fields, a 20-acre lake and a community farm.
The prolonged planning process, with its many design unveilings, has worn some people out. Christina Shea, a member of the Orange County Great Park Corp.'s board of directors, told the Orange County Register, "Sometimes, I feel like I am going to the same wedding several times a year." Now, it looks like there will be more delays. The park's build-out plan relies heavily on tax-increment financing derived from development of the land surrounding the park. The housing slump will push that development back by at least a couple of years and maybe more. At times like this, it's worth remembering that New York's Central Park also took seven years to plan--and another 15 to build. That fact is not lost on park chairman Larry Agran. "I'm glad we took the time and effort to create a world-class design for the whole park," Agran says. "But we should've emphasized that this is a 10-, 15- or 20-year project, and not a 3- to 5-year one."