Master Plan for McCrea Ranch OKd

There would be a historic village with a restored milking barn and blacksmith shop. And poetry readings at the small amphitheater only steps from a network of hiking trails.

And for the Hollywood buffs, Joel McCrea’s 80 scratchy movies would be played at the Conejo Valley ranch he purchased in 1933 on the advice of entertainer and friend Will Rogers.

This is the vision the Conejo Recreation and Park District directors have for McCrea Ranch, 300 acres of rolling hills off Moorpark Road in the northeast end of Thousand Oaks. Directors took the first step toward making this vision a reality late Thursday by unanimously adopting a master plan.

“We want to keep the ranch-like ambience and appearance,” said Tom Sorensen, the district’s administrator for parks and planning. “I think it’s a link to the agricultural past of the area.”

The next task is piecing together the money needed to make it a reality.

“We don’t have dollars at this point to implement it and I have no projection of when we might have that,” said Tex Ward, general manager for the district.

But officials have already begun applying for state and federal grants even though they are not sure how much the massive project might ultimately cost or when it could be completed, Sorensen said.

They also hope to earn revenue by opening the ranch for weddings and other special occasions.

Support for the plan seems widespread.

“We think it’s great at this point,” said Wyatt McCrea, Joel’s grandson who lives on the land with his wife and Frances Dee McCrea, his grandmother. “We wanted to focus on activities for kids . . . and educational-type exhibits. We wanted to be able to show people the way things used to be done around here.”

Wyatt McCrea, who played an integral role in designing the way the park district would use the land, believes his grandfather would be enthusiastic about the master plan.

“He always felt a real kinship to the land here and the community,” he said, noting that the late Joel McCrea was also a philanthropist. “With the alternative being development, this was the best thing that could have happened to the land right now.”

The recreation and park district acquired the land in 1995 after Frances Dee McCrea essentially donated it. Work began a year ago on a master plan to design the parcel’s future.

Along with the McCrea family’s role, input from the community was also considered during the plan’s several drafts.

Joan Good, whose house overlooks the McCrea property, attended an earlier meeting on the master plan and spoke to the board of directors Thursday night. She believes the plan is positive for the community but does have reservations.

“Would you like to be in your backyard and have all this company?” Good asked the board, adding that the hiking trails will run too close to her home. “It will be almost like a little Knotts Berry Farm, only in a different area.”

But park board member Dennis Gillette assured Good that the ranch would not turn into a commercial venture.

“This will now come as a jewel in virtually its existing state to the public,” Gillette said.