The plan for Lang Ranch Park needs more work

I look forward to Lang Ranch Park for our family's play and for my three daughters' potential participation in youth sports there. As a frequent Conejo Recreation and Park District (CRPD) visitor, I also welcome the new park for exercise and the enjoyment of nature. However, I object to the proposed park components listed in the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and believe that the CRPD should revise its plan to strike a better balance between park features, the recreational and aesthetic needs of the neighborhood and the recreational needs and demographic trends of the broader community.

I specifically object to the sheer scale and allocation of so much of the available park space to limited-participation forms of recreation, i.e. the large and concentrated number of brightly lighted baseball fields and loud PA system. Also, I'd like to know how CRPD determined that the need for a roller hockey ring was greater than other features without noise pollution.

I played Little League (but consider this): "The (one youth) sport that has seen a decline (in participation) is Little League baseball. There has been a one percent decrease in enrollment every year since its peak in 1996," this according to CNN ("Youth sports drawing more than ever," July 5, 2006).

Enrollment is less than 2.2 million and less than one of seven Little League members are girls.

In contrast, more than 17.5 million youths played soccer in 2002. The sheer number of baseball fields and support facilities proposed for Lang Ranch Park seem to be designed to serve a very small minority of park users, is inconsistent with how space and features appear to be allocated and balanced in other CRPD parks, and the plan defies recreational and youth sport participation trends.

I urge CRPD to reduce the number of ball fields to a maximum of four and to eliminate the PA system, ball field lights and the presence of a roller hockey ring. Lang Ranch Park will be a legacy project for the staff and elected officials of the CRPD; let's make it a crown jewel of the community and not a permanent legacy of controversy and ill will. Bruce J. Cornelius Thousand Oaks