MOORPARK : Home Acres Objects to Locked Park Gates

They haven’t started throwing stones at each other yet, but the controversy over a small fenced-in park that divides Moorpark and the neighboring community of Home Acres has set neighbor upon neighbor.

Residents of Home Acres have traditionally cut a path through the area to get into town for work, school or shopping and say a new policy of locking gates is locking them out of town. Residents on the other side say the park is an attractive nuisance and that leaving the gates open at night invites crime and loitering.

The Moorpark City Council tried for a compromise Wednesday night by voting to keep the gates open a little longer every day for the next three months and see what happens.

For about $1,700 over three months, a city employee will open the gate an hour earlier at 6 a.m. and leave the gate open three hours later, closing it at 9 p.m.

When tract homes were built on the Moorpark side of the divide, residents in Home Acres asked for and got a “buffer zone” to separate rural Home Acres from the high-density neighbors in the so-called Mountain Meadows development.

A road was built to connect the neighborhoods, but gates were put in to make sure the street was used only for emergency vehicles. Pedestrians were allowed to pass through the buffer zone, but this past summer another gate--locked from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.--was installed for pedestrians.

This shut out several Home Acres residents who tried to walk to school in the morning or come home a little late from work or from shopping. The only way to get around was to either walk several miles and go along the Arroyo Simi back to the neighborhood or walk along California 118. So many residents, to the dismay of those who live in the Mountain Meadows development, simply climb the fence.

An effort by Supervisor Judy Mikels’ office to get the two sides to sit down and work out a compromise over several meetings failed, and many of the discussions developed into shouting matches.

“I was surprised by what has happened,” said Home Acres resident Marcus Weise “I thought we would be able to get together and work something out.”

Tom Vaschet, who represented the Shadyridge Home Owners Assn., said Home Acres residents did not recognize that residents who live on the two cul-de-sacs next to the park have to deal with disturbances if the gates are left open. Shadyridge is the section of Mountain Meadows closest to the buffer zone.

The Moorpark City Council will revisit the issue in three months.