Crusader for Open Space Shakes Up City’s Elite

In this greener-than-thou town, all city leaders trumpet their commitment to preserve open space and avoid the gaffes that transformed the once-bucolic San Fernando Valley into a concrete nightmare.

But in the eyes of Planning Commissioner Linda Parks, a mountain-biking enthusiast whose actor father was the voice of “Smokey the Bear,” there are some pretenders in the chorus.

In fact, Parks, 39, says she may run for City Council this fall if she believes she has a strong chance of joining Jaime Zukowski and Elois Zeanah to form the council’s first slow-growth majority in years.

In the meantime, she is pressing ahead with a ballot initiative that would prevent parks and public open space from being rezoned without a vote of the people. In response, the City Council is drafting its own similar measure that it intends to put on the November ballot.

So it is certain that open space preservation, the quintessential Thousand Oaks issue, looks to be a volatile topic this election year. And Parks is right in the middle of the fight.

“My answering machine has exploded with calls from people who want to help with the initiative,” said Parks, who needs to gather 9,600 signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. “I think this is the best thing I can do for the city.

“We have politicians paying lip service to open space, but they have given open space away for development. . .,” she added. “Zoning for dollars has already damaged the natural beauty of Thousand Oaks.”

Mayor Andy Fox does not take kindly to Parks’ criticism, which he considers to be inflammatory and unfounded because Thousand Oaks has more public open space than any other city in Ventura County.

He believes she is trying to take advantage of the anger created by Sport X--the unpopular proposal to build a private athletic complex at public Conejo Creek Park--to win a seat on the council.

“Obviously, the timing of Sport X was and is a good opportunity for someone to exploit the open space issue,” Fox said. “She sounds like she is definitely running, from the way she is acting.”

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Parks may be best known to Thousand Oaks residents for being passed over by her colleagues for the commission chairmanship three months ago in favor of Forrest Frields, who is considered more friendly to development.

That vote broke an amiable, long-standing Thousand Oaks tradition where vice chairs were always appointed to the chairmanship. And it touched off a furor among Parks’ supporters, who contend she was pushed aside due to her positions on growth and open-space preservation.

Parks is unusually tough on building projects. She attributes her fervent slow-growth stance to an education in urban planning--and a childhood in the San Fernando Valley.

Parks was born to Gene and Ileen Moshontz in Los Angeles in 1957, and grew up in Woodland Hills with her two bothers. Both of her parents were freelance writers who owned a bookstore near Santa Monica.

Her father was also a successful actor who worked on several children’s television shows before becoming a voice actor and inheriting the job as “Smokey the Bear,” the legendary firefighting mascot.

Parks’ brother, Chuck Moshontz, followed in his father’s show business footsteps and became a top Los Angeles radio personality. He is the host of the morning-drive show at KSCA-FM (101.9).

Growing up in the valley and seeing its bountiful open space paved over had a profound effect on Parks. So did listening to her father complain about his hellish commute to Hollywood every morning, she said.

Parks decided on a future in urban studies at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1979. It was during that time that Parks met her husband, Al Parks, an engineer who bicycles to work in Agoura Hills. She received a master’s degree in urban planning at the University of Washington three years later.

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A transportation specialist, Parks began her career at a Los Angeles firm that designs ride-share programs. She worked on transportation plans for the 1984 Olympics, before leaving to have her first daughter, Jeri Lynn.

From the next four years, Parks worked at a transportation consulting firm and had daughter Jean and son Roger. She worked briefly as a part-time planner for the city of Ventura before resigning to take care of her children full time. She had her fourth child, Dan, in 1991.

Parks was appointed to the five-member Planning Commission in 1993 by Councilwoman Zukowski. She made her slow-growth views known in her first meeting, casting the lone vote against a housing tract because it was located in a flood plain.

Parks has voted against a majority of the projects before her, from the giant Seventh-day Adventist housing and retail development in Newbury Park to many of the small strip malls and housing tracts now dotting the Conejo Valley.

As a result, she has accumulated a formidable legion of adversaries--a list that reads like a who’s who of Thousand Oaks’ business-friendly elite. They contend she has misunderstood the role of a commissioner, using her position as a soapbox for her slow-growth beliefs instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of the projects before her.

“Look at her record,” said Steve Rubenstein, president of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce. “If a business wants to come into this city, she will vote against it nine times out of 10.”

Parks, whose voting record on the Planning Commission has also earned her something of a cult following, says she is not anti-business. She simply believes that the welfare of the city’s mom-and-pop businesses needs to be taken into account when considering requests for new chain stores.

Most commissioners and council members believe economic considerations are solely the job of the City Council.

Parks said what her critics really dislike is that she does not even consider exceptions to Thousand Oaks’ General Plan, the city’s long-term blueprint for development.

“The council has been pretty consistent in approving development, whether it made sense in accordance to the General Plan or not,” Parks argued. “In fact, I can’t think of something they have not approved.

“It’s as if the council is telling us that what is good for us is not always what we want,” she added. “They say there are economic advantages that outweigh the environmental issues, and we don’t understand. I don’t think we need to overdevelop to pay for the Civic Arts Plaza.”

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Her decision to launch an initiative drive came partly out of the Sport X debate--but also out of her frustration with the City Council, Parks acknowledged.

How do planning commissioners feel about one of their own going to battle with the council members who appoint them?

Frields said he strongly believes Parks’ actions are out of line.

“We work for the council,” said Frields, a Parks rival who may also be running for the council this fall. “That’s the whole idea. It’s not our business to challenge their authority.

“And while I do believe planning commissioners can have their own opinion and their own views, I think she has stepped over the line,” he added. “I think the council needs to consider what she is doing and whether that affects her ability to serve on the commission.”

Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, a strong supporter of Parks, said she is angry that anyone would consider Parks’ signature drive in conflict with her commission duties.

“What a flimsy criticism!” Zeanah said. “Just because we have public positions does not mean we cannot be involved in activism.”

Zeanah said she is convinced that Parks’ critics are going after the commissioner because she may run for City Council.

“It’s about Linda Parks as a strong candidate,” Zeanah said. “We have a pro-growth majority in this city right now, and they are afraid that residents might go for someone like Linda.”

What does Parks have to say about her plans?

Politically, the initiative is foremost on her mind, she said.

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Socially, she is perfectly satisfied planting oak trees with her daughter’s Girl Scout troop, biking from Newbury Park through Sycamore Canyon to the Pacific, and backpacking with a group called Women With Altitude.

So she insists she does not crave a bigger role in politics. But if there was a chance that she could help secure Thousand Oaks’ first slow-growth majority in years, she would eagerly throw herself into the race.

“I would love to be up there next to Jaime and Elois,” Parks said. “But if it’s not going to make a difference, what’s the point? . . . Developers are going to throw a lot of money into the race. But if I was the one who could make that difference, I would do it.”