Bonds Urged as Alternative to Sport X

As a father of two boys, Councilman Mike Markey understands the need for improved sports facilities in this city: He broke his foot last year on a rutted Newbury Park field during a parents-only soccer game.

But as an elected leader, he understands why Sport X--a plan to build a private, $35-million athletic complex at the city’s most popular public park--may be the most unpopular proposal to hit Thousand Oaks in years.

Trying to find a happy medium between residents’ concerns and their recreational needs, Markey has come up with a plan to place a bond measure on the November ballot to fix up Conejo Creek Park.

Not only would that eliminate the possibility of Sport X, Markey argued, it would also give Thousand Oaks residents the quality soccer and baseball fields they have long desired.

“With all the commotion about what to do with that property, it might be a good idea to look at a bond measure to improve the park ourselves,” Markey said. “It could be new soccer and baseball fields, roller hockey, a snack shack--whatever the public wants there.

“That would do away with Sport X,” he added.

Sport X is a proposal headed by Thousand Oaks businessman Dave Gulbranson to build an Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool, an outdoor track, basketball and volleyball courts and other recreation facilities. The plan--which has only been discussed in concept with community groups and city, park district and school district officials--also includes a retail center and a cafeteria.

Markey, who proposed the creation of an ad hoc committee to discuss Sport X at Tuesday’s council meeting, said he wants the committee to explore his idea. The proposed panel, which the council will consider Tuesday, would be made up of residents, two council members and two board members of both the Conejo Recreation and Park District and the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

The school and park districts own the parkland, and would have to approve any ballot measure to improve the property. If the committee endorses the concept of a bond measure, it could be forwarded to the City Council, Markey said.

Already, however, some council members have expressed reservations about Markey’s plan. Mayor Andy Fox and Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski said Wednesday that while they support Markey’s idea to improve the park, a bond measure would not be the best way to pay for such a project.

Fox pointed out that Thousand Oaks leaders are already considering a bond measure with the school and park districts to fund a series of gymnasiums at the city’s junior high schools.

As an alternative to Markey’s plan, Fox on Wednesday proposed a ballot measure of his own: letting Thousand Oaks voters decide whether the city’s bedroom tax should be used exclusively to renovate and maintain Conejo Creek Park.

But Fox acknowledged that the bedroom tax on new residential development--which is only expected to generate $1.4 million over the next 20 to 25 years as the city is built out--may not cover the park improvements.

Fox said he would ask city officials to study his bedroom tax proposal. If the tax is not an adequate source of revenue, he would consider a single bond measure to add gymnasiums and fix up Conejo Creek Park, he said.

“What Sport X has done is point out the importance of that piece of property,” Fox said. “The question now becomes, ‘What can we do to improve that park permanently?’ ”

Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski said she believes Thousand Oaks has enough money to spruce up Conejo Creek Park without tapping the city’s residents.

“It’s the most intensely used public parkland in the city, and while some improvements could be made, I don’t think it would require a bond issue,” she said.

Zukowski added that if a bond measure is considered at all, it should be done entirely at the council, school and park board level, not in a small subcommittee.

Sandra Clayton of the American Youth Soccer Organization, which uses the park nine months of the year, said she would have to seriously study Markey’s plan to determine whether it made sense for her group.

“We’re certainly happy with the way the park is now,” Clayton said. “We’d have to learn a lot about any proposed bond measure before we would take any position. An increase in taxes is not really a good direction to go into at this time.”

But Dave Anderson, one of the founders of Keep Parks Public, the residents’ group opposing Sport X, said he and others have already talked about the concept of a bond measure to improve the park, and believe it is worth considering.

“Yes, we are supportive of that idea,” he said. “We would even volunteer to do some of the labor if we had to. The piece of property does need some improvements. What it does not need is a huge strip-mall-like sports complex.”