Leaders to Discuss Sports Facilities : Thousand Oaks: The Jan. 20 conference is planned to help the City Council assess the needs of a large amateur athletic community.

Eager to gauge public support for expensive projects like an Olympic-sized swimming pool or indoor basketball courts, Thousand Oaks officials will convene local sports leaders next month for a goal-setting session.

The meeting will bring together organizers of Conejo Valley’s huge amateur sports community. Moderated by City Council members Frank Schillo and Judy Lazar, the conference will give the sports team leaders a chance to discuss their needs and rank their priorities.

While participants may differ on what should be built first, nearly everyone involved in the local sports scene agrees that Thousand Oaks needs more athletic facilities.

“Thousand Oaks is considered a very, very safe city, and that’s because we have all these incredible people working with kids in after-school sports,” said Lyndsay Timpson, who directs a local soccer league for more than 2,000 youngsters.

“If we don’t have adequate facilities for the kids,” Timpson warned, “they’ll just go back on the street.”

From soccer to softball to gymnastics, from volleyball to basketball to track, at least 6,000 youngsters and thousands more adults join Conejo Valley teams each year. Many leagues have had to cut back practice and game schedules because they cannot get access to playing fields or courts.

Aware of the space crunch, the City Council has listed new athletic facilities as a high priority on its annual list of goals for the past few years. And residents have consistently ranked development of more recreational sites among their top five wishes, according to the Conejo Valley Attitude Survey.

As always, the sticking point is money.

To meet all of the community’s needs--from a 50-meter pool to new backstops on the baseball fields to a third community center--would cost as much as $50 million, said Tex Ward, director of the Conejo Recreation and Park District.

City leaders have said they would consider issuing bonds to fund at least part of the development.

However, a general obligation bond would require approval from two-thirds of the voters and could be used only to fund construction costs, not ongoing maintenance. A $30-million bond issue could add roughly $7.50 a month to most homeowners’ property tax bills.

“We need enough community support to get people to raise their taxes for this,” Ward said. “Unfortunately, that’s what it comes down to, unless there’s some major benefactor out there.”

With no big donors in sight, Schillo has been exploring other options for funding new athletic facilities. He said he would like to see a private developer build a money-making indoor arena, for example, which could include profitable concession stands or a sportswear shop.

City leaders also view California Lutheran University as a possible partner.

In drawing up plans for an expansion north of Olsen Road, university leaders are considering building an Olympic-sized pool suitable for college-level competition, a new track and field center, and an indoor complex. The recreation center will not be built for years, but Schillo hopes that some facilities can be open for public use.

Dennis Gillette, Cal Lutheran’s vice president for administrative services, said plans were too tenuous to make any promises. But he agreed that Thousand Oaks needs more sites for its hundreds of recreation teams.

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“There’s no questions that we as a community have lagged behind in the development of facilities,” said Gillette, who also sits on the park district’s board of directors. “We must try, in this era of shrinking public dollars, to come up with adequate facilities--both in terms of quantity and quality--to meet the need.”

The conference of sports team leaders, scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20 in City Hall, will help Thousand Oaks officials better assess that need, Schillo said.

He and Lazar hope that the league commissioners will join together in a citywide association of amateur athletes to help the city plan future action.

“We ought to be looking at what we will need for this community when we reach build-out, which is not too far away,” Lazar said. “Let’s plan now for what we’ll need then.”