OAK PARK : Neighbors Oppose Lights at Ball Field

Oak Park residents opposed to putting a lighted ball field in Indian Springs Park drowned out a handful of supporters of the proposal at a Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District board meeting last week.

Most of the 90 residents attending the meeting at Mae Boyar Park protested that the proposed lighted playing field for Indian Springs Park would disrupt the peace and quiet of the surrounding neighborhood.

The district board heard about two hours of testimony on the lights issue, but took no action. Formal public hearings on the park, which is planned at Rockfield Street and Hawthorne Drive, will begin this fall.

Most of the residents said they support the district’s plan to build a ball field, and tennis and basketball courts, at Indian Springs Park. But they oppose the proposal to install 60-foot-high lights around the field to allow night games.

“We want the park,” resident Barbara Appel said. “We just don’t want the lights.”

The lights would shine into the yards and bedroom windows of nearby residents, disrupting their sense of privacy and lowering property values, neighbors said.

They also voiced concerns that a lighted field would attract ballplayers from outside the community who would loiter after night games, making noise and littering.

But some other residents argued in favor of the lights, saying the community is in dire need of public sports facilities.

Oak Park will get its first sports fields, not including those at public schools, when Valley View Park is completed, which is expected within six months. Valley View, at Kanan Road and Churchwood Drive, will have two lighted fields.

In addition, the planned Deerhill Park, at Deerhill and Doubletree roads, is designed with two unlighted ball fields. But Deerhill’s future is uncertain, because the park’s recent approval by the Ventura County Planning Commission has been appealed to the Board of Supervisors.