Flash forward to the fall of 2003. A sunny Saturday afternoon. The city of Fullerton. Hundreds of kids and dozens of parents dot 23 acres of landscaped fields. The kids kick soccer balls, hit baseballs, throw softballs and catch footballs. The grownups cheer wildly on nearly every play. At halftimes, lines jam concession stands and restrooms. As dusk approaches, battalions of state-of-the-art tower lights wink on, and the games proceed well into the night.

Now rewind four years. The manicured infields and sculpted sidewalks of the Fullerton Sports Complex are still only lines etched on architects’ blueprints. The acreage is a brush-filled flood control basin behind the Brea Dam. Girls and boys on sports teams must wait hours for the few “recreation amenities” in the city to open up for their games. The fields of dreams for Fullerton city planners are just that-dreams.

Enter the Corps. And Unocal, the onetime energy resources giant that has successful diversified into property development and real estate. Thanks to a complex land swap between the Corps and the company-a deal which involved scores of District team members and months of work-the Fullerton Sports Complex moved off the drawing board and into reality.

“The city required Unocal to build a sports complex, a community park, as a result of Unocal’s housing,” says Phil Serpa, an outdoor recreation planner in the Operations Branch. “There was a land exchange between the Corps of Engineers and Unocal that provided for this footprint.”
For years, Unocal and its Standard Pacific joint venture partner had been busy developing plans for the East Coyote Hills residential housing project . Ultimately, they will construct 212 homes flanking the sports complex, 82 west of the park, 130 east of it, as well as a golf course. Before they could get final approval, however, the joint venture partners needed to come up with a plan to meet the legal requirements to furnish “recreational amenities” when creating a housing development.

The entire area encompassing the proposed project is contained in the Brea Dam Basin, which means it is subject to periodic floods. The Corps owned the land. Unocal needed some of it to satisfy the law. “They had some very steep land,” recalls Carvel Bass, an ecologist in the District’s Operations Branch. “We had some that was flatter. So we traded.”
Sounds simple enough, but the fine print required thousands of team-member hours to iron out the details. “Once the plans came to us in Operations,” Serpa explains, “we submitted them to Engineering Division to make sure they didn’t have any problem with their structures and ball fields, which they didn’t. There was no expense to the government, it didn’t interfere with operations of the dam itself and it provided the community with a local place to go-it’s a great thing.”

Jim Martinez, Unocal’s project manager for the East Coyote Hills development since 1989, agrees. “The Corps is to be commended and complimented on its efforts, from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., because it was an extremely complex transaction,” he says. “A lot of people in the Corps spent an awful lot of time on this. We think it is a premier park with all the bells and whistles.”

During the complicated discussions, the actual acreage envisioned for the sports park grew to 23 acres from an original estimate of 17 acres. Moreover, as all the dirt was being moved for the housing development, the capacity of Brea Dam was also increased . By the time the sports complex is finished, the total cost will be $5.5 million. Masquerading-moving the dirt-was the biggest -ticket item in construction, followed by the high-tech Musco lighting structures, which cost $600,000. Among other features, the lights can be turned on and off and dimmed telephonically.

For the city of Fullerton, with some 126,000 residents, the sports complex has been a decade-long goal. When finished, there will be two softball/baseball fields, one soccer/football field and one combination field. The complex will also host a series of summer concerts, which are now held at the base of the dam. Concession stands, restrooms and a large parking lot make up the infrastructure of the complex, and a latticework of trails can be used by walkers, joggers, bicyclists and equestrians.

“There’s been a need for a long time,” says Alice Loya, a senior administrative analyst in the city’s Community Services Dept. “We didn’t have enough room to rent out or issue permits (to teams). Now we’re figuring out the schedule for the various leagues.”

Bordered on the west by Harbor Blvd. and on the north by Bastanchury Road, the sports complex is expected to be fully open by October or November. “Now we’re at the stage of meeting with residents and are trying to implement a ‘Good Neighbor Policy’ with them and the leagues,” Loya adds.

The residential development features two distinct zones: “Aspen,” with houses 2,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet and ranging in price from the high $400,000s to the mid-$500,000s; and “Cedars,” whose houses’ square footage ranges 2,000-2,200 square feet and prices from the mid-to-high $400,000s. “We’re going to have people moving in the late third quarter of this year,” Martinez says, “and most of the units will be sold, though not necessarily built, by the first quarter of next year. It should be completely built and closed by next year’s third quarter.”

As it turns out, synergy may be playing a role here. Unocal and Pacific Standard are discovering that the sports complex, which they were required by law to build, has become a magnet for families with young children or those expecting young children. “We sold out 75% of the first part of the housing, and we’re sure the rest will go very quickly,” says Martinez. “It has a lot to do with the park. You don’t have to drive anywhere-that’s a big plus.”

Serpa, a father of one daughter and two sons who play baseball, and a man who himself plays softball on weekends in Whittier, can personally understand the park’s appeal to athletes and fans. He also sees the importance of the complex in promoting Corps’ values. “We’re going to have Unocal put up a monument (in the park) indicating that you’re within the Brea Dam Basin with a description and purpose of the dam as flood protection for the whole community,” he says. “This whole project tells people that the Corps is providing the open-space land to show that we’re interested in the community and their recreational opportunities.”

Play ball!