Costa Mesa residents welcome new sensory playground at Jordan Park
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Costa Mesa became a little more playful this week, after officials Monday celebrated the completion of a playground renovation at Jordan Park on the city’s east side that will have kids chasing rainbows and launching rocket ships.
The new play area features a structure for children ages 2 to 5 designed to accommodate different levels of climbing experience and has a kaleidoscopic installation that casts rainbows onto the ground upon which kids can see their own shadows.
Visitors age 5 to 12 can wander through a helix tower connected to a space-ship climber with multiple pathways to climb and an 8-foot spiral slide. The entire area has been made ADA accessible.
A total of $96,384 for the new additions, which replaced equipment purchased in 1995, was allocated from the city’s 2021-22 budget for capital improvements. Officials selected a design from Game Time Playground Solutions for its ability to encourage sensory and exploratory play.
“This is a kind of campus for children,” said Mayor John Stephens, listing nearby amenities like the Boys & Girls Club and soccer and baseball fields at Kaiser Elementary School. “This is a really wonderful area in the city of Costa Mesa’s District 6.”
Councilman Jeff Harlan shared details on the park’s namesake, Willard T. Jordan, the city’s mayor from 1966 to 1968 and an architect who served at the Santa Ana Army Base in the 1940s before becoming a planning commissioner and, later, a council member.
Harlan called the new park an “awesome legacy” for Jordan and a sign of the city’s desire to invest in its own progress.
“It’s not only about maintaining what we have but moving things forward, so we can grow as a city,” he added. “I think the park is emblematic of that.”
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