Costa Mesa had an outside consultant evaluate its parks. The results aren’t pretty.
The city recently hired DVD Creative to visit each park in Spring and Summer 2025 to inspect and review seven key elements: playgrounds, structures, fields/courts, amenities, hardscape, landscape/irrigation and maintenance. As the evaluation was conducted in mid 2025, park improvement projects currently underway at Brentwood, Ketchum-Libolt and Shalimar parks were not taking into account.
This is what they found:
Bottom line: 12 Costa Mesa parks received a “C” rating.
When Brentwood, Shalimar and Ketchum-Libolt are excluded, 12 city parks were given a “C” — meaning that at least one element in each C-rated park was scored either “poor” or “very poor” in an objective evaluation. Many “C”-rated parks had multiple elements scored either “poor” or “very poor”.
If you’d like to read the full evaluation, you can access it by clicking here.
This is unacceptable. It’s time for the Costa Mesa City Council fix this.
If you are ready to do something about it, here are three ways to help RIGHT NOW:
- Email your City Council
- Prepare a public comment and deliver it at City Council
- Click here to fill out a survey about Costa Mesa parks — the fastest and easiest option, plus it’s totally anonymous!
The Costa Mesa City Council is the only body in the City that can change the way we fund and prioritize our neighborhood parks. But nothing will happen unless your Council Members hear from you, their constituents, that you are demanding change. So it’s time to step up get involved. Here are three easy ways you can make your voice heard:
1. Write the City Council to tell them: I want to see real improvements in our neighborhood parks.
The most direct path to change is to go straight to the people who control the budget: your City Council members. Sending an email puts your concerns on the record and in front of the decision-makers who can actually fund improvements.
Click here to send a pre-addressed email with sample text.
We’ve already filled in the right email address and drafted sample text so you can get started in seconds. But here’s the key: the more specific and personal your email, the more impact it has. Tell them which park you visit, what’s broken or missing, how often you or your family go there, what you love about it — and what’s keeping you away.
Public record warning: Emails sent to the City Council are likely to become part of the public record and may be published in the next council agenda packet as a public comment. Your name and email address could be visible.
2. Attend a City Council meeting in the months of March, April and May 2026 and speak out about what your local park needs.
Nothing signals urgency to elected officials like constituents showing up in person. Staff remember faces. Council members feel the weight of a room. In-person public comment is consistently cited by local government researchers and advocates as the single most memorable and impactful form of constituent engagement.
Costa Mesa City Council meets on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month, at 6:00pm at Costa Mesa City Hall. You can find agendas for the upcoming meetings on the city’s Legistar website. Here are the upcoming meetings where your voice can make a difference:
| Month | Meeting Dates |
|---|---|
| March 2026 | March 17 |
| April 2026 | April 7 & April 21 |
| May 2026 | May 5 & May 19 |
How public comment works in Costa Mesa:
- Public comment is open to all residents — no appointment needed
- There will be a public comment portion at the beginning of the meeting, where speakers will be asked to line up along the sides of the chamber and wait their turn to speak
- You’ll have 3 minutes to speak when it’s your turn
- The Mayor will give you a one-minute warning when you only have a minute left to speak
- REMEMBER: Public comments are one-way. You can speak to the City Council, but they cannot respond to you during your comments. If you have questions, ask them — just remember no one will be able to answer you until after the public comment period is over. And of course, always be polite!
Nervous about speaking in public? These resources can help:
- 📋 How to Make Public Comment — WikiHow guide to speaking at local government meetings
- 🎙️ Scared of Public Speaking? — practical tips from Toastmasters
- ✍️ Script your 3 minutes — Here’s a Google AI template for a 3-minute public comment
Even a few sentences — said plainly, from the heart — can leave a lasting impression.
3. Fill out the Costa Mesa parks survey; ANONYMOUS results will be sent to the Costa Mesa City Council.
Not into emails or public meetings? This one’s for you.
Fill out this survey about what you think about Costa Mesa’s neighborhood parks: what’s working, what’s broken, what’s missing –> Access the survey here.
Your responses will be compiled and sent to the Costa Mesa City Council as aggregated community feedback. The survey is anonymous.
Here’s why this still matters: elected officials respond to numbers. When many residents speak up about the same issue, it becomes impossible to ignore. Your anonymous response is a real data point in a real report that real decision-makers will read.
Costa Mesa Parks Collective 