Field Goal

Sports fields are sometimes booked until 10 p.m. on weeknights with team after team practicing for weekend games. A youth soccer league has raised more than $75,000 to turn a city park into a suitable site for games. And basketball teams often practice outside through the winter.

This family friendly city, which has long enjoyed a reputation for bountiful open space and recreation programs, may seem an unlikely place to find a shortage of play fields and gymnasiums.

But as Thousand Oaks continues to grow, youth sports leaders and politicians agree: The city is facing a critical shortage of athletic fields and facilities, and something needs to be done soon to tackle the problem.

As usual, the problem is money.

The Conejo Recreation and Park District, the government agency chiefly responsible for building and maintaining sports fields in Thousand Oaks, has had to put off several plans to develop new park sites because Gov. Pete Wilson cut its yearly share of property taxes by 27% four years ago.

The demand for field time and gym space--and the political pressure that comes with it--continues to increase, however. So even though it is not supposed to be a city duty, bolstering Thousand Oaks’ network of athletic facilities has become one of the most talked-about issues in the City Council race.

“That’s part of our quality of life, and if we treasure recreation as much as we say, we have to address this somehow,” said candidate Marshall Dixon. “But there’s no magic formula to do this. It costs money.”

Most of the nine candidates running for two council seats have vowed to build more ball fields or raise more money to help the park district expand if elected. Some candidates are even wondering aloud whether Thousand Oaks citizens should consider dismantling the park district altogether in favor of a city recreation department.

“The city is not responsible for parks,” said incumbent Mike Markey. “If the city is going to build parks, we need to look at whether we need a park district.

“I have a lot of respect for those people over there, and I know they do a good job,” he added. “But if we’re going to take over some of their duties, we need to consider whether this community would be better served with a city parks and recreation department.”

Naturally, officials at the park district have a different view. They point out that cities with independent park districts usually have more play fields, open space and sports programs because recreation departments often have to compete with other city services for dollars in the city budget process.

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Incidentally, the park district, which is governed by an elected five-member board, is also the site of a political race this fall. Incumbents Mark Jacobsen and George Lange are running against challengers Kimberly Horner and Tim Heyne.

“If you look around Ventura County at the three communities with park districts [Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Camarillo], compared to the ones without, you see a significant difference,” said Tex Ward, the park district’s longtime general manager. “Oxnard’s recreation department was almost completely dismantled when times got tough.”

Moreover, Ward noted, one of Thousand Oaks’ greatest achievements--the preservation of more than 13,000 acres of open space--has largely been the result of aggressive joint ventures between the city and the park district.

Such cooperation--this time also involving the Conejo Valley Unified School District--is what is needed to solve the shortage of sports facilities, he believes.

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Since 1993, city, school and park district officials have been discussing ways to fund expensive projects like an Olympic-size swimming pool, softball fields or indoor basketball courts. Although a lot of ideas have been tossed around in a series of joint meetings--most notably a proposal for a multimillion-dollar bond issue--nothing has taken place so far.

“We ought to be able to work together, because we have one group of taxpayers,” said Robert Shoup of the Conejo Sports Federation, an organization of political and sports leaders created to focus on the issue. “That is why the sports federation came together, to determine how facilities are best used, and what the needs are going to be in 15 to 20 years.”

Dennis Gillette, chairman of the park district board, believes that the best way to pay for new sports fields would be by raising local sales taxes and creating an endowment fund for recreation. That way, he said, the park district, school district and city would have a way to maintain as well as build new athletic facilities.

“This whole issue of sports facilities is nothing new, but we have yet to find a joint-agency solution to this problem,” said Gillette, who is not facing reelection. “To use this as political fodder in an election is really unfortunate. My sense is that a bond measure is not the way to go. There are other ways.”

With a population of just over 110,000--and several massive housing developments set to break ground soon--Thousand Oaks is already beginning to experience serious growing pains when it comes to its gyms and sports fields.

There is no year-round public swimming pool in Thousand Oaks, and no modern track facility.

Because there are not enough baseball diamonds and soccer fields for everyone, sports leagues often have to fight among each other for time. The result: games in less-than-perfect conditions, and practices often running as late as 10 p.m. on week nights.

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Moreover, since many Thousand Oaks public schools do not have gymnasiums, organizations such as the Conejo Youth Basketball Assn. have to hold practices outdoors, often in chilly weather and slippery conditions. The league, which serves about 800 children from third through eighth grades, has even had trouble finding places to play games.

Steve Grosslight, the parent who runs the basketball association, said the league recently learned it will no longer be able to play at a Calabasas school because an Agoura Hills league was given permission instead. That left Grosslight scrambling for an alternate site, possibly Moorpark College.

“If you go to Simi Valley, some of their intermediate schools have gyms,” Grosslight said. “That’s not the case here in the Conejo Valley.

“We need that indoor facility, and that’s generally more expensive than a soccer field or a baseball field,” he added. “We’re encouraged that some of the political leaders are talking about this. But a lot of people talk about these things until it comes time to fund them.”

Already, many of Thousand Oaks’ amateur sports leagues have been forced to spend their own money to upgrade existing fields and athletic facilities at the city’s schools and parks.

“What’s happened is that the groups have gotten so large and the demand has gotten so great that they’ve said ‘we want this and that,’ and we’ve said, ‘that’s fine, if you can help with the money,’ ” said Jim Gilmore, the park development planner for the park district.

The basketball association, for example, agreed to contribute money to erect lights and pave the outdoor basketball courts at Los Cerritos Middle School and Redwood Intermediate School. The league, which spends about $15,000 a year in facilities costs alone, is also talking with the school district about raising money to jointly build a gym near Colinas Middle School.

The Newbury Park chapter of the American Youth Soccer Organization is going considerably further: With permission from the park district and nearby homeowners, it has hired a contractor to convert part of Pepper Tree Park into a center for soccer. The league is made up of about 950 boys and girls--up about 100 from last year.

Largely through candy sales and other small-time fund-raisers, the Newbury Park AYSO has raised $75,000 so far in its quest to enlarge the park’s parking lot, build a snack shack, add a driveway, and add to the site’s five soccer fields. The first phase of work has begun, but the league will need much more money to complete the project.

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“We’re doing it for the kids,” said Brad Jordan, whose 11-year-old daughter, Megan, and 6-year-old son, Tanner, play AYSO soccer. “We can sit back and hope that someday the park district can do this, but by then our kids will be too old to play.”

City Council candidates Dan del Campo, Linda Parks and Nick E. Quidwai argue that part of the reason Thousand Oaks has failed to keep up with the demand for sports facilities can be traced back to one of the campaign’s hottest issues: the city’s dealings with developers.

Put bluntly, they believe that Thousand Oaks has let builders off easy, approving their housing tracts without making them pay for the impacts they had on services such as sports facilities.

“Once again, it comes back to negotiating with developers,” said Parks, a planning commissioner. “We need to make sure that they are taking care of the impacts they have on this community, and that includes parks and sports. We need to have a little heavier hand in our dealings with developers.”

Thousand Oaks has, in fact, required many developers to build ball fields, and the city has worked with builders to get more sports facilities from them than they have to provide. For example, the Dos Vientos Ranch development will include two sports areas, one made up of three Little League fields and three soccer fields, the other with three softball fields and three soccer fields. Still, some critics say that is too little for a 2,300-home project.

One candidate, Norm Jackson, says his top priority is to see the city issue bonds for a sports complex run by the park district. Another, Ramaul Rush, opposes bonds, saying the city should tap professional athletes for fund-raisers instead.

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“I know one guy on the Los Angeles Lakers,” Rush said. “I strongly feel we need to get creative here and put our money where our mouth is.”

Yet another candidate, Tom Lee, believes that the money for sports fields should come from other city programs.

“Right now, Thousand Oaks cannot afford to spend money,” Lee said. “If this is a top priority for Thousand Oaks residents, then we have to cut other programs.”

Markey said he would support bond issues for recreation projects. He and candidate David Seagal also think Thousand Oaks must take more of a role in getting small businesses to help sports leagues pay for improved fields. They also believe the city must work to lure businesses such as ice rinks to the community.

Ventura County has only one ice rink, the 85,000-square-foot Easy Street Ice Arena in Simi Valley. Its owner formerly operated a smaller rink in Newbury Park, but left that site for Simi, where he is now planning to build a roller rink as well.

“We need to see what we can do to get a skateboard park in this city,” Markey said. “We should not be in the business of owning and operating this stuff, but we can help make it happen.”

Times staff writer Steve Henson contributed to this story.