Park Puzzle

Look out the window where California 23 cuts a diagonal swath through Conejo Creek Park, and see a divided park that is as schizophrenic as its jagged boundaries might suggest.

The Janss Road exit ramps spiral into four sections: unkempt brush and grazing horses to the northwest. A modern concrete-and-glass library in the northeast. Groomed soccer fields to the southeast. And in the southwest, 13 empty acres waiting for neighboring residents to figure out what to do with this piece of their beloved park.

Developers over the years have proposed building commercial sports complexes and the like, hoping to take advantage of the site’s ideal position in the middle of town, with direct freeway access. But residents committed to protecting the park’s open space have fervently fought such notions.

The last time anyone sketched out an official plan for the park was in 1974, yet Conejo Creek remains mostly undeveloped. It has become a place that Little Leaguers, soccer moms and equestrians call their own.

But over the next six months, the Conejo Recreation and Park District will draw up a new, legally binding master plan that will finally define Conejo Creek Park’s identity.

Those who use the park every day hope that they will recognize the natural, open and noncommercial land they love.

“This really is Thousand Oaks’ Central Park,” said Joe Gibson, president of the Conejo Valley Little League. “It provides a gathering place and a sense of community.”

The Conejo Park District hired South Pasadena landscape architect Bob Takata to provide a vision for the new master plan and to lead the community in a series of focus groups to determine what is best for the park.

“My first reaction was that the park is fragmented,” Takata said. “Physically disjointed pieces, each with its own characteristics.”

The culprit is California 23--it can’t be changed but must be worked around, Takata said. “What to envision when you see the park is a challenge,” he said. “Do you think about the park as a whole, or how it relates to its different identities? Maybe they don’t have to be related at all.”

Trails could be the answer, and the architect hopes to make more.

“They can be an important element, pulling the different pieces of the park together,” Takata said.

As for the freeway that runs through it, Gibson, the Little League official, said that is perhaps the park’s greatest asset.

“The horses don’t wander onto the soccer fields, and the ballplayers don’t make noise by the library,” Gibson said. “That barrier keeps people who like to do different things from being in conflict with each other. It makes the park unique.”

Randy Cabral lives adjacent to the park in the Waverly Heights neighborhood and owns two horses that he rides with his wife and 9-year-old daughter.

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Cabral attended Takata’s first informational meeting last week because he is concerned the focus groups could go too far. The beauty of the park is in its lack of a plan, Cabral said.

“The neat thing about the park is that it’s not landscaped and designed. Kids can go there and just play in the dirt,” Cabral said. “In this computer age, it’s nice there is still a place where we can feel like it was when we were children.”

The majority of Cabral’s neighbors want to leave the park the way it is, he said. But he considers the master plan process a necessary evil.

“Talking about development is the scary part,” Cabral said. “But I’m in favor of the process because we need some closure--that ‘Yes, indeed this land is designated as open land.’ ”

Takata, the architect, said there are no preconceived notions about what direction the park should take.

“My job is to get everyone’s desires down on paper for consideration,” he said. “We’re starting with a blank sheet.”

Takata said his focus-group idea, which would bring together representatives from various user and neighborhood groups to drive the planning process, is more sensible than unwieldy and chaotic public meetings.

“We’re trying to create an atmosphere where everyone can look at each other’s needs,” Takata said.

Open meetings also will be scheduled so the focus groups can present their progress to the public, giving members of the community a chance to comment and offer suggestions, he said.

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Harriet Osinski is a soccer coach with four kids, ages 8 to 15. They all play soccer, often simultaneously in four games. Conejo Creek Park is this soccer mom’s dream. With nine fields at one location, shuttling her kids to all their games requires just one trip.

“If we didn’t have soccer here, where would we go?” Osinski asked. “This park lets more kids and families participate without having to worry about the logistics of driving all over town.”

As a coach for the American Youth Soccer Organization, Osinski said she would like the master plan process to provide for even more fields and a permanent restroom site.

She takes her soccer and park seriously. The idea of changing the park makes her bristle.

“We’re not saying it’s only ours and that’s it. I don’t mind the park being used for other purposes, as long as we’re guaranteed our soccer space,” Osinski said. “What scares me the most is if the master plan might include anything that takes any part of the park away from the children.”

Horse rider Cabral said the best plan would be to leave well enough alone.

“Right now, everyone shares the park and gets along fine,” he said. “We just need to officially designate it as a place that cannot be developed.”

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Conejo Creek Park

1. Equestrian facilities (51 acres)

2. Library, teen center and senior center (43 acres)

3. Sports fields (53 acres)

4. Undeveloped (13 acres)