Neighbors Lose Fight to Unfence Park : Pleasant Valley: Directors oppose plea to open up play area next to Tierra Linda School, except after classes end.

Despite strong protests from neighbors, directors of the Pleasant Valley park district voted to keep a chain-link fence around a public park that doubles as a play field for an east Camarillo elementary school.

Directors of the Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District voted 4 to 0 Wednesday to retain the six-foot-high fence that lines the perimeter of a five-acre play field next to Tierra Linda School. The fence will be closed to the public during school hours.

Board member William Marsden was absent from the meeting.

The directors cited a 1991 agreement between the park district and the Pleasant Valley School District that granted the school exclusive use of the field when classes are in session.

Residents living near the school at Woodcreek Road and Lynwood Drive pleaded with the park board to push back the fence and leave a portion of the field as a full-time public park.

But board members refused.

“I believe that this (configuration) is still in the community’s best interest,” said Nancy Bush, chairwoman of the park board. “I think once it is fully developed, things will work out.”

Neighbor Johanna Milford called the board’s refusal to move the fence both wrong and unfair.

“They haven’t listened to a word we’ve said all along,” Milford said. “The park isn’t their land, it’s the public’s land. As residents and taxpayers, we should be able to enjoy it when we want--not at the school district’s discretion.”

Neighbor Joel Granath agreed that the fence should be moved to provide neighborhood access to the park and said a smaller play field would mean increased security for the 750 students attending Tierra Linda.

“Even if you don’t agree that we deserve our park, I would think you would want to move the park for the safety of the children,” Granath said. “But as it stands now, you have an increased safety risk and we are stuck with a hideous chain-link fence.”

School district officials at the meeting asked the board to honor its 1991 agreement.

Howard Hamilton, the school district’s associate superintendent, said that because Tierra Linda could be forced to expand to accommodate more students and because its current student body needs a field for physical education classes, the fence line should be kept where it is.

He also pointed out that under the agreement, the park district pledged that it would build Woodcreek Park years ahead of schedule if the school district built Tierra Linda.

“The school wouldn’t be there today if it wasn’t for your board agreeing to go ahead and develop Woodcreek Park,” Hamilton said. “We thought this would be a win-win situation that everyone could accept.”

With the park board’s decision, landscapers will soon begin installing children’s play equipment and picnic tables on the field’s Woodcreek Road side--both amenities that were put on hold until Wednesday’s decision.

Meanwhile, Milford and other park neighbors said after the meeting that they will consider taking legal action against the park district to press their case.