Commercial Use of County Park Assailed : Recreation: Officials reconsider proposal to let a developer fence off 20 acres of Schabarum Regional Park.

Complaints about increased traffic and closing off part of a public park have forced Los Angeles County officials to back off from plans to turn part of Schabarum Regional Park into a moneymaking project.

The project would have affected 20 of the park’s 600 acres.

Henry Roman, eastern regional director for the county Department of Parks and Recreation, said Monday that he is reconsidering an Agoura developer’s proposal to build an indoor glass-and-brick pavilion that would hold 600 guests, a wedding gazebo and a fenced-in picnic area on the northwest corner of the park--all of which people would have to pay to use.

“We’re getting such negative input, maybe I won’t consider it anymore,” Roman said. “What’s recreational to some people isn’t recreation and nature to others.”

For now, he said, he will pursue only plans to fence in a three-acre picnic area, blacktop the greater part of it to accommodate up to 600 people, and install a kitchen, restrooms and playground equipment.

The developer, Gerald Lolli of Sunshine Picnics, would be responsible for maintaining the picnic grounds, renting the area to parties and providing catering services, Roman said. Lolli would pay about 15% of the revenue with the county.

Lolli hasn’t submitted formal plans yet, and a spokesman for Supervisor Pete Schabarum said he is unaware of the details.

Still, some residents of the area are upset, accusing the county of sacrificing a community park for a profitable enterprise. About 25 showed up at the park Tuesday morning to meet with Roman.

“It just smacks of commercialism,” Barbara Fish, president of the Hacienda Heights Improvement Assn., said Tuesday. Hacienda Heights abuts the western end of the park.

“Is it fair to the general public, who have learned to love that park and who normally could go and use picnic tables scattered around?” Fish added.

But Roman said the financially strapped parks department is short about $3 million. Unless it can raise more money, he said, programs will be cut, employees will be laid off and projects such as the unfinished soccer and softball field at Schabarum Regional Park will be delayed indefinitely.