Move Forward on Sports Park

A big park with a cool pool is exactly what residents of eastern Ventura have been requesting for years. That dream has been delayed by indecision over where the park should go and what features it should include.

Now, because it asked, the city has a clear idea of what many area residents want. It should move ahead with plans to build a sports park at Kimball and Telephone roads before the 5,000 to 10,000 kids who now participate in organized sports in the neighborhood grow old enough to have kids of their own.

There’s not much doubt that some sort of major park is needed. Ventura has 427 acres of park, not including two golf courses--far less than the 1,000 acres called for in the city’s General Plan.

To help turn a vague good intention into a concrete plan of action, city officials held two public workshops last month. Representatives from the Little League, American Youth Soccer Organization, Buenaventura Swim Club and the YMCA turned out to cheer them on and to make their case for facilities to make life better for east side athletes and fitness buffs of all ages: an aquatics center, a community center, tennis courts and plenty of playing fields for soccer and baseball.

As the preliminary proposal now stands, the city would build a 100-acre regional sports park on a parcel south of the Santa Paula Freeway (California 126) and west of Kimball Road.

Because the site is zoned for agricultural use, city officials believe rezoning it for this type of park would require voter approval under the city’s 1995 SOAR growth-control ordinance. And that makes this a significant test case.

Now that the rest of Ventura County has followed the city’s lead and passed SOAR (Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources) measures, farmlands in the greenbelts between cities should be preserved. Agricultural plots like this one, which is within city limits and already flanked by residential neighborhoods, are the sort of place where facilities such as a much-desired park logically ought to go.

In their campaign, SOAR supporters argued that the need to win voter approval for new projects would result in better planned, more neighbor-sensitive, higher quality proposals. The city is off to a good start by asking area residents what they would like the park to include. Now it must consider the objections raised by some neighbors, including fear of traffic congestion, parking problems, lower property values and crime. If every possible effort is made to reduce negative impacts while meeting the area’s needs, the city should have no problem winning voter approval.

During the next six months, city staff will meet with community members to draw up a specific plan. Already nearly $10 million has been set aside for construction, about half the expected total cost. About $4 million was set aside 10 years ago to build an aquatics center.

East Ventura has waited long enough for a park where young and old alike can run, play and share the pleasures of being a community.