Waging War on Paint Ball : Moorpark: Some Virginia Colony residents are up in arms over the city’s approval of a proposal to conduct weekend ‘combat’ games at a nearby ranch.

Most residents of the Virginia Colony neighborhood in Moorpark are not given to complaining.

A few protested the Moorpark-Simi Valley freeways connector that is being built west of their quiet neighborhood. About the same number argued against a decision to put a new business with 1,600 employees on the community’s eastern edge, residents said. Both projects were approved.

“It just seems that over the years it’s become a mind-set that ‘Oh, they won’t say anything. They won’t mind. Let’s put it in the Colony,’ ” Virginia Colony resident Anthony Simen said.

But when the Moorpark Planning Commission decided Jan. 20 to allow two Los Angeles brothers to hold weekend paint-ball games on a ranch bordering the older neighborhood, the residents got angry.

Nine of them--concerned that the “war games” will cause noise, traffic and vandalism--gathered Monday night to urge commissioners to reverse their decision on the proposed game site at 14506 Los Angeles Place.

But commissioners approved the project on a 3-1 vote.

Commissioner Christina D. May, who voted for the project earlier, changed her mind.

“I feel we moved on incomplete information and lack of material,” May said, adding that she visited the site after the Jan. 20 meeting. She questioned who owns the access road that would be used by paint-ball participants.

Residents said they will appeal the decision to the City Council.

City Councilmen John E. Wozniak and Roy E. Talley Jr., who were at the commission meeting Monday, said they had received calls from residents and plan to recommend that the City Council take up the Planning Commission decision.

Simen and other residents expressed anger that the commission had approved the site although only one Moorpark resident spoke in favor of it at the Jan. 20 meeting.

And the lone supporter was Fred Tabor, who wants to lease four wooded acres of his horse ranch to game operators Glenn and Richard Forster. If their plan wins final approval from the city, the Forsters are expected to begin the games right away.

In paint ball, participants arm themselves with air guns that shoot water-soluble dye capsules as they stalk their opponents.

Virginia Colony residents said they are most concerned about the traffic from the 60 participants expected to play in the games from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each weekend day.

“We don’t want all that traffic,” said resident Lydia Aguirre, 59, who added that she is one of five generations of Aguirres in the neighborhood.

Construction of the freeway connector already disturbs residents during weekdays, Aguirre said.

“We like peaceful weekends here at least.”

Traffic to the game site would pass through an area at Avenida Colonia and Los Angeles Place where dozens of children play each weekend, residents said. There are no parks in the neighborhood.

Residents said they are also concerned that curious or lost paint-ball players will cruise down their narrow side streets and that the game itself will spill over into their back yards.

Planning Commissioner Steve Brodsky pointed out that the game operators had agreed to direct traffic away from side streets. However, he said, “kids shouldn’t be playing in the street.”

In addition, Brodsky said, the Forsters are subject to the provisions of a conditional-use permit. “If they don’t abide by the conditions, the permit can be yanked,” he said.