Cautious District Starts Planning Future for Conejo Creek Park

Open space is sacred here. Just mention it might be nice to build a sports complex in a popular park and you can expect big trouble.

Two years ago, for example, many Thousand Oaks residents reacted violently to a suggestion that an athletic complex--dubbed Sport X--could be built in Conejo Creek Park, a prized centerpiece of the Thousand Oaks open-space philosophy.

So the Conejo Recreation and Park District, which oversees the park’s 120 pristine acres, is moving carefully as it begins work on a new master plan for the park.

The park has outgrown the last one, which was done in 1974. Many park users, such as equestrian and soccer associations, want to expand their facilities.

To do that, a legally binding master plan must be drawn, and Monday begins the first phase in the long road to determining the future of Conejo Creek Park.

To be certain everyone gets their say, the park district has set up a system of public hearings and focus groups.

“It’s going to be an open and lengthy planning process,” said Tom Sorensen, administrator of parks and planning. “From a little fruitful friction, I hope we can reach a consensus in the end. You will never satisfy every individual.”

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Sorensen and architect Bob Takata will work on a master plan, in part through focus-group meetings and public hearings over the next six months, he said.

Takata first had to devise a means for the public to get a say in the plan, Sorensen said.

A focus group of about a dozen people will be led by Takata in an attempt to work out the park’s future. Seven public hearings will present the focus group’s conclusions and take in concerns and suggestions from the public.

Monday, applications will be taken for the four or five seats still available in the focus group. The other spots have been filled by current “stakeholders” in the park, Sorensen said, longtime users such as the American Youth Soccer Organization, Conejo Valley Days, Equestrian Trails Inc. and the Conejo Valley Unified School District, which owns 20 acres of the park.

Sorensen hopes to get one citizen onto the focus group from each neighborhood that abuts the park, including Waverly Heights, Conejo Oaks and Paige Lane areas.

Sorensen will conduct an informational session Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Goebel Senior Adult Center and begin accepting focus group letters of application. He plans to select the focus group members himself.

Despite the history of fervent citizen involvement when it comes to development issues, Sorensen said no plan was in place in case he received hundreds of letters applying for the few open spots.

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Sorensen said applicants must be serious about serving because attendance at 13 evening meetings is mandatory. “I don’t know how many people will really commit to all those meetings.”

Michael Hagopian, a 35-year Thousand Oaks resident who opposed Sport X two years ago, said he doesn’t think much of the focus-group notion.

“I can see special-interest groups applying--even the soccer moms,” Hagopian said. “I’m not so keen about focus groups; they can be manipulated.”

Hagopian, who lives in the Conejo Oaks neighborhood next to the park, is eligible to apply for one of the citizen spots on the focus group. But he has reservations about the selection process.

“Suppose they know you’re a rebel, and they don’t like you? Are you going to get picked?” Hagopian asked. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have to apply to anything to speak my mind.”

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Sorensen said the focus group is a fair and manageable way to help undertake a complicated task.

“It is clear this is a very open process,” he said. “The best master plans are those with the most community involvement.”

Just what this master plan will propose is an open question, Sorensen said. “We’re starting with a blank tablet and will just sit back and listen,” he said. “Although I have a good idea what people might say.”

Permanent equestrian facilities in the northwest quadrant and more sports facilities in the south, such as a swimming pool, are popular ideas, Sorensen said.

As for more commercial development ideas like Sport X: “We sure won’t surface it,” he said. “But if someone in the audience might, we don’t know.”

Councilwoman Linda Parks, who two years ago was a strong opponent of Sport X, said it is important to residents that Conejo Creek Park remain as untouched as possible.

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“People don’t want a manicured park. They want a place where they can ride horses and kids can catch lizards,” Parks said. “A master plan is great if it incorporates the public’s desire that the park remain equestrian. I don’t hear anyone complaining about the way it is now.”

Having a master plan provides for the future of the park by making the community commit to one vision, Sorensen said. It also lends a sense of permanency to groups that have used the park for years and want security before investing in expansion, he said.

“We need a planning tool to help us develop and expand existing facilities,” Sorensen said. “We have to understand how all the park components fit together rather than adding things haphazardly.”