MOORPARK : Council Gives New Names to 2 Parks

The Moorpark City Council has changed the names of two city parks that residents found confusing and adopted a formal policy governing how future park names are assigned, over the objections of Mayor Paul Lawrason, who called both actions unnecessary.

The council voted 3 to 1 Wednesday to change the name of North Meadows Park to Mountain Meadows Park--the name many residents had already been calling it--and to change the name of South Meadows Park to Tierra Rejada Park. The council also agreed to rename the planned West Meadows Park within the next few weeks.

Councilman John Wozniak said Thursday the actions were needed because the original park names were so similar that residents were confusing the different sites.

Wozniak said his son’s soccer league has for years practiced in North Meadows Park, but that he has always been told to go to “Mountain Meadows Park” for practices because that is the name commonly used in the city.

“We ought to call it what it is being called in the community,” Wozniak said. “It’s always been called Mountain Meadows Park.”

Lawrason disagreed.

“I have absolutely no problems with the names of those parks the way they are right now,” he said. “You take a park that has been seven or eight years in that location called North Meadows Park and we’re now going to arbitrarily change the name of it.”

Lawrason said the new names would further confuse residents, a fear Wozniak and other council members did not share.

“I think it’ll be a natural transition,” Wozniak said. “And people will eventually say, ‘Well, they finally named the park what it should have been named. They finally fixed it.’ ”