Planner’s Open Space Initiative Divides Officials

Everyone in this city seems to agree on one thing: Open space is a priceless commodity obviously worth saving.

Finding the best way to do that, however, is fast becoming a muddled, contentious issue among city leaders.

Planning Commissioner Linda Parks has launched a petition drive to place an initiative on the November ballot that would prevent any property designated as a park, golf course or open space in Thousand Oaks from being zoned for another purpose without a two-thirds vote of the people.

But Mayor Andy Fox and Councilman Mike Markey say Parks is wasting her energy: They plan to propose a similar ballot measure during Tuesday’s City Council meeting that they say will accomplish the same objectives.

“There’s really no point in having members of the community go out and do something that the council has already said it wanted to do,” Fox said. “We want to put more control in the hands of the public.”

Parks sees the council’s motives differently. She believes members are trying to water down her idea, and plans to press on with her petition drive unless council members place her initiative before voters in November.

“When someone does not like a certain initiative, they will put a competing initiative on the ballot,” Parks said. “I would like to see them put my initiative on the ballot.

“They don’t like the idea of their authority being eroded on this issue,” she added. “They want to prevent my initiative from being passed.”

Parks filed her intent to circulate petitions with Thousand Oaks on Thursday. For her initiative to be placed on the November ballot, she would need to collect signatures from 15% of the city’s 64,028 registered voters within 180 days.

The fast-developing open space skirmish comes as Thousand Oaks officials are faced with intense pressure to prevent the most unpopular development proposal in recent city history--the Sport X private athletic complex at Conejo Creek Park--or anything remotely like it from being proposed on public land.

Sport X faces a more uncertain future now that the Conejo Valley Unified School District, which owns the 10 acres of the park where most of Sport X would have been located, announced last week that the land is not for sale.

Nevertheless, the heat is on. Sport X has convinced many residents that the pristine parkland and tree-lined open spaces of Thousand Oaks should not be vulnerable to the ever-shifting whims of politicians.

That, according to Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, is why her fellow council members should place Parks’ initiative before city voters.

“I think it’s essential in this political environment,” Zeanah said. “With the disappearance of developable land, we are getting pressure to develop open space. Our open space can vanish with a 3-2 vote on the council right now, and that is wrong.”

Speculation is rampant that Parks will make a run for one of two council seats that will be open in November’s election, and Zeanah contends that Markey and Fox are really trying to steal Parks’ glory.

“It’s a political move, one-upmanship on the part of these council members,” Zeanah said. “It bothers me that the council would do an end-run against Linda Parks.

“This is the same thing that happened with the Planning Commission appointment,” she added, referring to that panel’s decision earlier this year to select Forrest Frields as its chairman instead of then-vice chairwoman Parks. “They are afraid that she is a viable council candidate, and they don’t want her to gain any more credibility.”

For her part, Parks said Friday that she has not decided whether she will run for the council seat. If other slow-growth candidates emerge, she will throw her weight behind them. If not, she would consider entering the race, she said.

“This is better than running for council,” Parks said of her initiative, modeled after a greenbelt measure the citizens of Ventura passed last fall and a similar measure in place in Napa Valley. “Last election, I didn’t see the issues addressed, and I hope to see candidates out there who are interested in preserving the beauty of our city.

“I honestly think this initiative is the best thing I can do in this city, to save open space for future generations to enjoy,” she added. “I’m not using this to run a [City Council] campaign around.”

Whatever the case, Markey said, it makes no sense for Parks to go out and gather signatures to place something on the ballot when the council essentially supports the same concept, and can put it before voters with a simple vote.

Markey and Fox said their only concerns with the proposal, which the council has discussed in other forms, is that it may prove too restrictive, preventing innocuous private enterprises such as golf course pro shops and hot dog vendors from doing business on public land without a special election. Parks, however, disputes that her measure would prevent these activities from taking place.

Markey and Fox plan to discuss the proposal Tuesday and draft an initiative that would achieve the same goals while providing more breathing room.

“That’s what needs to be looked at,” Markey said. “We need to see how this can be done without preventing snack shacks at Little League games and other things that people don’t mind.”