Sun rises on Sunset Ridge Park

Although she didn’t live to see the finished product, late Newport Beach resident Louise Greeley’s dream of a park taking the place of what once appeared to be an abandoned plot of land at Superior Avenue and West Coast Highway became a reality Saturday morning.

Hundreds of local families and city officials gathered at the plateau of land overlooking much of the Westside of the city for the grand opening of Sunset Ridge Park.

Before her death, Greeley lived in a condominium in Newport Crest, the community that now overlooks the park, and was an avid supporter of using the space as a place for children to play.

“She waited 39 years. That’s a long time to keep a determined lady waiting,” said City Manager Dave Kiff. “Hopefully time doesn’t pass in heaven because that deserves an apology.”

The city broke ground last year on the 13.7-acre park, which boasts a baseball diamond, two soccer fields, a jungle-inspired playground, shaded picnic tables and a butterfly garden.

However, the story of the park began decades earlier. Mayor Rush Hill estimates that the idea of building a park on the sprawling property was floated about 50 years ago.

“This park has taken a bit of time to plan,” Hill said during the ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday. “But 50 years later here we are.”

The story of how the park came to be isn’t one without turmoil. City officials hit roadblocks nearly every step of the way in building Sunset Ridge Park. In the 1970s, the area was slated to be the Pacific Coast Freeway, but resistance from Newport Beach residents killed the project. It remained unused, but not forgotten land, for decades.

After much negotiation, the city purchased the land from the state for $5 million in 2006. Over the years that followed, the park underwent design concept approval, an environmental impact review and two California Coastal Commission hearings.

The city granted a $5.2 million contract to Environmental Construction, Inc., of Woodland Hills last year to build the park.

The city is still working with the Coastal Commission on a proposed on-site parking lot and pedestrian bridge, which would run over Superior Avenue and provide better access to the park, officials said.

Greeley’s one request, in addition to building space for children to play, was that the park also include a butterfly garden.

Children and adults alike gathered to release Monarch butterflies into Greeley’s garden during the grand opening. A young boy pointed at a butterfly as it fluttered past attendees and landed on a native California plant.

“Hopefully the butterflies will flutter enough so that she can see them,” Kiff said of Greeley.

Past the sprawling sports fields is a scenic overlook area, where guests can enjoy spectacular views of the city and on a clear day, the sparkling waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Parents struggled to keep an eye on their little ones as they jumped from mushroom to mushroom heading up to the tree-house inspired playground. Large concrete geckos and frogs stand watch over the sandbox area, where children hustle up stairs made of imitation wooden logs to take their turn on the slide, which resembles a hollowed-out tree trunk.

When Edward Aguilar, of Santa Ana, saw the playground area, he knew he had to bring his 5-year-old daughter, Olivia.

“My daughter heard the word playground and was all about it,” he said. “We’ve been to a lot of playgrounds, but the view and the landscaping on this one is just incredible.”