Following hours of community input on the future of the equestrian center on the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Orange County Fair Board members voted Thursday to scrap current plans to research how to increase public access to the attraction.
Some of the board members expressed frustration that multiple supporters of the equestrian center declared there was a plan to close it.
“We’ve heard lies that (staff intended) to turn it into a parking lot,” board member Robert Ruiz said. “We have never discussed turning it into a parking lot or an office center… I just want to see a public benefit giving back to the public.”
Ruiz added, “I’m sure we can all agree there’s a benefit to horse therapy. But how can we maximize the equestrian center for the public benefit?”
Board member Natalie Rubalcava-Garcia agreed.
“I think we should focus on how to make this more publicly accessible,” she said.
“We love this facility and having horses accessible to the community,” said board chairman Nick Kovacevich. “We’re all literally saying the same thing, but we’re in a tough position when going to (requests for proposals).”
Some private businesses are providing some public access, but the fairgrounds staff lacks “that direct line of sight” on managing it all, Kovacevich said.
“I would like to see the model change so that we can feel really good and in control, and the public is really benefiting from this, but not lose those things that so many who came here today” to support, Kovacevich said.
The board directed staff to research how to provide more public access to the equestrian center with a new model for managing it. The board will consider a new model in June of next year. The staff was also directed to seek input from all of the stakeholders in the new model.
“I think we’re going to build something bigger and better for the public good,” Vice chair Barbara Bagneris said.
“We will do something much bigger and greater, but it’s on us. We have to deliver,” Kovacevich said.
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley told the board she was concerned about any plans to “eliminate” the equestrian center.
“When my kids were little, they did the ranch program” there, she said. “They participated and learned about horses there.”
She also related how caring for a horse herself as a youth “taught me how to be independent.”
Foley added that, “Our equestrians are part of Orange County history.”
The supervisor said her office was eager to help with increasing public access to the center.
The board focused on the equestrian center in part due to annual losses of about $1 million. In September, board members directed staff to seek bids for an independent operator to assume operating expenses.
According to the board’s staff report, questions have been raised over the last 44 years about the equestrian center’s “long-term viability.” Discussions have arisen about its use as a public asset while private trainers and boarders use the state-owned property, prompting questions about whether it has become a “gift of state funds.”
Foley said on Wednesday that she wants the equestrian center to continue on the fairgrounds.
“We should be supporting the equestrians and working in a partnership with them, not trying to eliminate it,” Foley told City News Service.
Foley disputed any claims that the center does not offer a public service.
“It’s kind of a misnomer there are no community programs because there are a lot of community programs that go on there,” Foley said.
But Foley would like to see more done with it.
“If the fair board would invest in that area, there could be more competitions, there could be more events,” Foley said. “There’s a lot of things you can do.”
Foley suggested afterschool programming in partnership with the nearby school district, for example.
“There’s so many opportunities,” she said. “I just hope they’ll take the time to truly partner with the equestrian groups that are the users there now to develop a program in the future that is community-minded.”
Foley also questioned the financial drain the equestrian center poses.
“How much money do we lose running a park?” Foley said. “I know some of my friends on the fair board won’t like this, but it’s like, does everything have to be monetized on the fairgrounds? What happened to it being a community asset?”