New Mayor Yarrow Seeks Sports Park

New Mayor Douglas Yarrow vowed to work with the community to provide a large, sports-friendly park for residents, an issue that has come to the fore recently as a much-needed amenity in Westlake Village.

“The biggest challenge the council and the city face is the true need for an active park for recreational sports,” he said Thursday. “The [original] city planners ignored one thing: active sports parks. The city is really in need of that.”

Yarrow was sworn in as the city’s 16th mayor on Wednesday night. Councilwoman Kris Carraway was named mayor pro tem.

Yarrow, now in his eighth year on the council, takes the office for the second time. The mayor’s job is rotated annually among council members.

The software executive said he also plans to study proposed businesses to be sure they meet the city’s rigid standards for the Westlake North development, and to finalize funding and plans for a permanent City Hall and library.

But, he said, his main focus will be youth. He has asked city staff to establish a blue-ribbon youth task force to study recreation, including finding a site for a 10-acre or larger active park, and other youth issues. He did not name any specific site for a park.

“Children are our future,” Yarrow said, “and the better we make the world for them, the better for us.”

Residents suggested a park several times during a recent debate about proposed changes to the Westlake North Specific Plan. Those proposals included replacing a four-acre park with an 11-acre combination recreational facility and school, but the council defeated that plan last month.

Although the issue has always been important to him, the debate crystallized the need in the community, Yarrow said.

“It’s so important to the community that we need to move forward and do it.”