City Hopes for a Revival With Metrolink : Moorpark: The commuter rail service, which debuts Monday, has sparked plans for a face lift along the dusty downtown business area.

Moorpark officials and merchants are hoping that Monday’s debut of Metrolink commuter rail service to Los Angeles will spark an economic transformation of the city’s sleepy downtown.

“I see it as a real rejuvenating sort of thing,” Moorpark Mayor Paul Lawrason said. “It’s going to bring a lot more traffic and activity and interest to our downtown area.”

City leaders are now planning a face lift for the dusty downtown strip, complete with antique-looking street lamps and a Western Victorian theme. The goal for High Street, Lawrason said, is “to make it a real destination type of place, where people want to go.”

Beginning Monday before dawn, the commuter rail system will link Moorpark to downtown Los Angeles with four trains departing weekdays between 5:06 and 7:16 a.m., and returning between 5:36 to 7:46 p.m. The train will stop in Simi Valley, Chatsworth, Van Nuys, Burbank and Glendale along the way to Union Station.

In addition, four Amtrak trains will begin stopping in Moorpark beginning today, with destinations north and south.

Simi Valley and even Fillmore anticipate some economic benefit to come down the track. But of all the cities in Ventura County, Moorpark has the highest hopes attached to the periwinkle locomotives poised to roll through town.

“The draw now is going to be Metrolink, and I think the next step is for us to make them want to come back,” Councilman John Wozniak said.

The potential influx of customers--an estimated 162 riders a day--is not lost on High Street merchants who have changed hours and, in some cases, their businesses to draw commuters.

Judy Vickers, owner of The Creamery ice cream parlor, moved from 400 square feet of space into a 2,000-square-foot former auto parts store, added a newspaper and magazine rack, continental breakfast and decided to open six hours earlier, at 5 instead of 11 a.m.

“It gave me the confidence to go forward,” Vickers said of Metrolink. “We hope this will be a place for people to come in the morning, pick up an espresso, cappuccino, coffee, bagel, croissant, the morning paper and take Metrolink.”

Happy hour at the Whistle Stoppe bar has been extended another hour, now running from 4 to 7 p.m., in anticipation of weary riders looking for $1 beers before heading home.

“We’re kind of hoping it will pick up our afternoon business,” said Jo Torner, owner of the bar that has celebrated every passing train for the past year by serving a special shot--a mix of butterscotch schnapps and Irish Cream.

“It’s kind of our little catch,” Torner said. “When a train goes by, everybody hollers, ‘Train!’ We have a little whistle here and after everybody shouts we blow the whistle and it’s like, ‘All aboard, drink up.’ ”

The anticipation may not be as festive in Simi Valley--where 252 riders are expected to board the train daily--but officials are not hesitant to tout the service as a major benefit to the city’s 101,000 residents.

“This is probably the biggest step forward in regional transportation for Simi Valley and for those who commute to Los Angeles from Simi Valley since the opening of the 118 Freeway across the San Fernando Valley,” Assistant City Manager Mike Sedell said. “We have been waiting for years for this to happen.”

And Ventura County’s lone representative to the Southern California Regional Rail Authority --the five-county agency that will operate the Metrolink system--is Simi Valley Councilman Bill Davis.

“For once, since the old Cal Train days, we’re finally giving the people another option, without having to get on the freeway and sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic,” Davis said.

But the enthusiasm runs deeper in Moorpark, where Metrolink is seen not only as a way to commute, but as an engine that may bring change to the city’s neglected downtown area.

The problem with downtown Moorpark today, city officials, residents and merchants say, is that few people find any reason to go there. High Street, once a hub of activity, has become a neglected strip of shops that Moorpark’s newer, and wealthier, residents avoid more often than not.

Councilman Scott Montgomery said the combination of quick development in the outer reaches of the city in the 1980s and the scarcity of large-scale retailers downtown has prompted residents to look beyond the city rather than at its center.

The resulting growth and traffic patterns reached outward toward Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks and roads accommodated this daily flight.

Recently, however, the city has worked on reducing congestion downtown and hopes to lure larger retailers who will halt the hemorrhage of sales tax revenue.

Moorpark leaders have settled nearly all of the lawsuits filed against the city over proceeds from its redevelopment agency formed in 1989. With these out of the way, council members are anxious to begin using the estimated $319 million the agency will collect during the next 45 years to refurbish this city of 26,000 people.

Among the plans are installing historic-looking street lights, benches, planters and a small park downtown. The agency also will offer low-interest loans to refurbish homes and businesses throughout the city.

The work is in keeping with a City Council-commissioned document called the “Downtown Plan,” completed a year ago. The study envisions a Western Victorian theme along High Street that would define the area and make it unique.

The council, acting as the redevelopment agency board, voted Wednesday to spend $800,000 to buy land from the Ventura County Transportation Commission that runs on the north side of High Street and includes the 270-space Metrolink parking lot.

“I think that this should really be the hub of Moorpark,” said Peggy McLaughlin, owner of the Sweet Cinns bake shop. “We have a lot of services here and it’s a shame that people are not more aware of them or have not wanted to use them for whatever reason.”

A Metrolink schedule is posted on the counter of McLaughlin’s shop, located directly across High Street from the train station. She has changed her opening time from 6 a.m. to 4:45 a.m. in hopes of luring bleary-eyed commuters looking for coffee or a croissant to help them through the morning.

“If we get enough people, we’ll put in a cappuccino machine,” she said. “But I don’t want to do that right now. I want to get the lay of the land.”

And while High Street businesses may see an immediate increase in sales to Metrolink commuters, a more delayed effect may be in new homeowners drawn to the area because of the availability of commuter rail.

On one of Monday’s outbound trains will be Gary Austin, vice president of Messenger Development Co., an Irvine-based developer that owns 4,000 acres northeast of Moorpark.

Messenger wants the land annexed to the city, and is planning to build 3,150 dwellings, a golf course, equestrian center, retail space and other amenities.

“I think it was over two years ago, we really felt that there were two things that really worked to the advantage of this property we own,” Austin said. “One was the (freeway) connector and the other was the possibility of the Metrolink coming in. . . . I just think it’s tremendous.”

Austin said the company is already exploring ways to link its proposed housing with the rail station, either by shuttle bus, a tram or other means.

“I remember when the freeways started getting closer and closer to Moorpark, and you could sense that it made the city much more attractive to home buyers,” said Councilman Bernardo Perez. “I think the same thing will happen with Metrolink.”

Perez, who works in Los Angeles as a water service representative for the Department of Water and Power, said he will be thrilled to ride Metrolink instead of the commuter bus he normally takes from Thousand Oaks to Los Angeles.

“I’m going to get there early enough to get a cup of coffee and a morning sweet roll,” Perez said. “I’m looking forward to a stress-free ride on the train.”

Round-trip tickets into Los Angeles from Simi Valley and Moorpark will cost $12, $6.50 for a one-way ride. Monthly passes from either city cost $176.

A study is under way to gauge the interest of Fillmore residents in a shuttle bus that would bring them over the hill into Moorpark to the Metrolink station, and the possibility of expanding the rail system into the west county is seen as an alternative if it is successful.

“A number of us have always said that Moorpark was a place where freeways ended and life began,” Montgomery said. “Now we can kind of say this is a place where freeways bend and trains begin.”

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