Yes on Sports Park

First a new church, then a retirement center expansion. The first projects to seek voter approval under Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) anti-sprawl measures in Ventura County have been about as controversial as motherhood and apple pie.

The next one is a bit more challenging.

Voters in the city of Ventura will decide Nov. 7 whether to permit rezoning of about 100 acres at Telephone and Kimball roads to allow construction of a sports park and aquatic center.

We believe the people of East Ventura--especially the kids and teenagers--have waited long enough for a handy place to run, swim and play soccer, softball, tennis and basketball. We endorse a yes vote on Measure M.

At issue is whether the city’s need for improved recreational facilities is more important than preserving this parcel in agriculture. Cost, traffic and impact on surrounding neighborhoods are also considerations.

Because the project must win voter approval, it has been designed to minimize the disruptive effects. Lighting would be angled away from surrounding residential areas. Ball fields would be set in from the edges, to reduce the likelihood of conflict with nearby farmland. Flowers, row crops, citrus and avocados all are grown in the surrounding area.

The proposed park site was purchased in 1972 by a partnership with plans to build homes and a 10-acre commercial corner. But in the mid-1970s, the City Council in a 4-3 vote changed the land’s zoning to agricultural / open space. When the city passed Ventura County’s first SOAR growth-control ordinance in 1995, the owners had few choices other than sell the land or continue to farm it.

If voters say yes to Measure M, the property would be rezoned from agricultural to parkland and the city would purchase it and develop the park, designed to include soccer fields, baseball diamonds and a community center and pool. Because only about a third of the $33 million cost is on hand, the park would be built in phases.

Measure M is the first city-initiated test of Ventura’s SOAR growth-control ordinance, passed in 1995. Last November voters approved a similar measure for 26 acres of farmland near Montgomery Avenue near Bristol Road, owned by the First Assembly of God Church. That group plans to build sports fields and an auditorium for its growing congregation.

Surveys have shown that Ventura has a shortage of parks for its 100,000 residents. It hasn’t had a municipal swimming pool since the 1920s.

We believe East Ventura is long overdue for a sports park and pool. Voters should give this plan the approval it needs before another generation of Venturans grows up without a nearby park and pool.