Board OKs Skating Restrictions on Private Parking Lots, Sidewalks

A new county law banning skateboarders, roller-bladers and even remote-control toy vehicles on private parking lots and sidewalks in unincorporated county areas was approved Tuesday by Ventura County supervisors.

The law allows private property owners to post signs prohibiting skateboards, roller-skaters and roller-bladers, and allow sheriff’s deputies to intervene if skaters refuse to leave.

Carrying a $30 fine for each violation, the new law becomes effective Dec. 4. Some property owners said without such a law on the county’s books, they were unable to control freewheeling youths who endangered shoppers and posed liability threats.

The ordinance applies only at locations where property owners post signs that read “Skateboarding Prohibited” or “All Skating Prohibited.”

“This is not an attempt to roll over skateboarders,” said Supervisor Kathy Long, who proposed the measure. “This ordinance provides the private property owners some relief from having the skateboarding activity they don’t want to have. That’s all it is intending to do.”

Skaters are already banned from publicly owned properties in unincorporated areas through an ordinance passed in 1993.

The new ordinance, however, does cover property owned by other public or government entities in unincorporated county areas.

The measure follows others passed in recent years by several area cities, including Camarillo, Ojai, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Ventura, where skating is banned at various strip malls, parking lots and sidewalks.