In Opinion 07-905, the California Attorney General opined on whether a county, under the terms of the Public Park Preservation Act of 1971 (“Act”), could enter into a joint agreement with a school district under which the district would lease a portion of a public park for its exclusive use for school baseball games. The Attorney General concluded that the Act allows such an arrangement because school baseball games fall into the category of “park purpose” as defined by the Act.
Attorney General Opinion
The Act generally prohibits a public agency from using property obtained for use as a public park for “a non-park purpose,” the Attorney General said. The question was whether school baseball games were a non-park purpose.
The Attorney General cited prior opinions concluding that a park could not be converted to a school site, as public education was plainly a non-park purpose, but also concluding that many other varied uses have been upheld as legitimate park purposes, including hotels, restaurants, museums, art galleries, zoological and botanical gardens, playgrounds, conservatories, libraries, police athletic training, and golf courses.
The deciding factor is not whether the facility is open to all members of the public at all times, but whether the use to which it is put is public leisure or recreation, as opposed to education, governance, or other public business. By that standard, school baseball games plainly qualify as an appropriate park purpose and the Act permits the county to enter into an agreement with a school district for such use of its park.
Questions
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