THOUSAND OAKS : Group Gets OK to Build 3 Soccer Fields

The board of the Conejo Recreation and Park District has approved construction of three soccer fields at a Thousand Oaks park.

But in an unusual agreement, the district, which is strapped for funds, won’t pay to build or maintain the fields. All costs will be borne by the local American Youth Soccer Organization, which needs the fields to accommodate a burgeoning number of players.

The fields will cost more than $50,000 to build, said Lyndsay Timpson, commissioner of the soccer league’s Region 9 in Thousand Oaks. The soccer players, who range in age from 5 to 18, raised the money with an intensive fund-raising campaign that included selling 25,000 sticks of beef jerky and thousands of Ghirardelli chocolate candies.

The new fields would be built at Conejo Creek Park South, which already has six soccer fields, if Thousand Oaks city planners approve the construction.

If approval is given soon, the fields, to be south of Janss Road and east of the Moorpark Freeway, will be ready for the first games of the 1993 season on Sept. 13, Timpson said.

“This is the biggest expansion we’ve ever experienced,” she said. “We’ve been fighting for this for years.”

Tom Sorenson, the district’s administrator of parks and planning, said the agreement could set a precedent for other organizations that use local parks. The district had placed a moratorium on all new construction and on projects that require additional maintenance costs.

“We’re looking for other public-private partnerships where we can,” Sorenson said. “We may require participation both for capital funding and for maintenance and operation, because we’re just not in the fiscal position we should be.”

Timpson said the new fields will help the league accommodate a yearly increase in players. Nearly 2,000 children played soccer last year, and another 300 were turned away because there was no room. With the new fields, the league should be able to accommodate all comers, Timpson said.

The fields will ease the burdens on parents as well by allowing the league to schedule all games at the same park. It has used fields at two other locations.

Because 1,400 of the players are siblings, the central location will save parents a lot of rushing around from one park to another, Timpson said.