{"id":457789,"date":"2026-09-09T02:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T02:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/457789\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T02:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T02:08:11","slug":"a-park-without-parking-anaheim-sets-up-open-space-on-santa-ana-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/457789\/","title":{"rendered":"A Park Without Parking: Anaheim Sets up Open Space on Santa Ana River"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anaheim officials are building a 3-acre park behind Angel Stadium along the Santa Ana River as they look to transform a corridor along the river into open space<\/a> years after Orange County officials cleared the homeless encampments in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a project that\u2019s raising renewed questions on the future of the publicly owned stadium amid the bombshell announcement last week that Angels Owner Arte Moreno was selling the team right on the heels of city staff publicly hinting at potential development at the stadium.<\/p>\n

The park, dubbed River Park, is expected to open next summer and will feature designs that reflect the region\u2019s native ancestry along with a playground, exercise zone, a sundial, picnic seating, panels about native wildlife, an interactive canoe and a poem that stretches the length of the park.<\/p>\n

But it won\u2019t have parking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At least not right away.<\/p>\n

City staff publicly said there were obstacles to building parking for the space which they didn\u2019t specify and they\u2019re banking on future development at Angel Stadium to use their parking lot despite officials repeatedly denying any long term talks about the taxpayer-owned property.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parking will eventually come in future discussions with the Angels and the development of that site, we\u2019ll all interact and connect too,\u201d said Rudy Emami, the city\u2019s public works director, at a city council meeting at the tail end of last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we\u2019re bringing the park first really enhances and enforces any future development that\u2019s going to be planned for that property to really take advantage and face and incorporate that park into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emami\u2019s remarks came a week before Moreno announced he was selling the Angels to the owner of the Los Angeles Rams professional football team years after a city hall corruption scandal imploded a deal to sell Angel Stadium<\/a> to Moreno.<\/p>\n

[Read: Angels Owner Arte Moreno Sells Baseball Team Four Years After Stadium Deal Flop<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Anaheim officials are moving forward with a projected $200 million \u2013 according to the budget<\/a> \u2013 revamp of a corridor along the riverbed stretching from Angel Stadium past the Honda Center to the Anaheim Coves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials say River Park will kick off implementation of that revamp \u2013 dubbed the OC River Walk Project<\/a> \u2013 aimed at transforming the river to recreational open space equipped with a new trail, pedestrian and bicycle bridges and inflatable dams.<\/p>\n

Last month, city council members voted unanimously to give a roughly $4.5 million contract to a Palm Desert based landscape contractor to build the park \u2013 the 69th one in the city.<\/p>\n

According to a staff report<\/a>, the park\u2019s construction will be funded entirely through environmental grants with officials allocating nearly $5.5 million towards the park in their current budget<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The park and the overarching river walk project are not the only developments being built near Angel Stadium.<\/p>\n

Across the freeway, the Samueli family is developing a new mixed-use entertainment district around the Honda Center dubbed OC Vibe with restaurants, hotels, parks and a concert hall.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Anaheim officials have denied any long-term discussions on another Angel land sale following the corruption scandal despite a private meeting between city officials, real estate consultants and Angels executives in 2025 to discuss the surplus land act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following the announcement of the Angels sale this month, Mayor Ashleigh Aitken told Voice of OC it was too soon to talk about another stadium sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s premature to discuss any future development, but I do plan on seeing more October baseball in Anaheim,\u201d she said in a text message.<\/p>\n

Aitken, however, told The Athletic the same day<\/a> that she was hopeful the new owner will work with the city on a development plan for the stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to put the cart ahead of the horse,\u201d Aitken was quoted saying. \u201cBut if the deal goes through, and if it\u2019s approved by Major League Baseball, then I\u2019m very hopeful that he\u2019s going to want to work with the city to come up with a really innovative development plan that would benefit the residents. Youth sports fields and housing, and potentially hotel development. And make it a vibrant place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken\u2019s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anaheim officials are building a 3-acre park behind Angel Stadium along the Santa Ana River as they look…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,19753,180600,2267],"class_list":["post-457789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-angel-stadium","tag-santa-ana-riverbed","tag-voice-of-oc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}