Sport X Foes Press School Board on Land

THOUSAND OAKS — If the ever-growing legion of Sport X foes has demonstrated anything by now, it is this: The opposition will not think twice about storming a public meeting when necessary to make a point.

That strategy became apparent once again Thursday night as about 80 opponents of the plan to build a private, for-profit athletic center in Conejo Creek Park packed a Conejo Valley Unified School District board meeting.

The diverse group of neighbors, horse owners and sport league officials--united to defeat Sport X under a newly formed coalition--pressed school board members not to sell a 10-acre portion of the park to the principal Sport X developer, Dave Gulbranson.

Instead, the group asked board members to negotiate a land swap deal with the Conejo Recreation and Park District, which owns the rest of the 180-acre park. That way, they argued, Sport X could not be built, and the land, site of the annual Conejo Valley Days festival, could remain public open space forever.

“The school board may want to sell some land because it needs money,” said Joy Meade, one of the leaders of the anti-Sport X group. “Our message is: ‘We are your bosses, and you are not going to sell that piece of land.’ ”

Conejo Valley schools Supt. Gerry C. Gross assured residents that the district has no intention of selling, leasing or trading the land.

“The Janss Road property has not been declared surplus property,” Gross said. “This is zoned public land, and it is not for sale.”

The coalition, which announced earlier this week that it would like to purchase the land on its own with help from the city, has changed tactics--saying now that it will be satisfied if the park district acquires the land or if the two districts develop a joint agreement securing the future of the site.

“Thank you for protecting this land,” Dani Anderson told the school board. “We hope you can give this land to the park department.”

Tex Ward, manager of the park district, said it would probably consider a land swap to obtain the school district’s portion of Conejo Creek Park. But he did not know what, if any, park properties school board members would be interested in, because the park district mostly owns designated parkland. The district has little money to purchase more property, he said.

“If [school board members] decide there is a potential deal with the park district, we are willing to negotiate,” Ward said. “But they may want to hold on to that [land].

“We look at it as a critical piece of the Conejo Creek property,” he added. “We are very interested in the future of the property, and the entire park. But what’s the price, and what are the terms?”

Sport X, headed by Thousand Oaks businessman Gulbranson, is a proposal to build a large, modern athletic complex at Conejo Creek Park.

Detailed plans have yet to be filed, but originally, Gulbranson said Sport X was to be a public-private partnership. It would have included an outdoor track, an indoor Olympic swimming pool, basketball and volleyball courts, a cafeteria, some small express-type fast-food counters, and an area where corporate sponsors could sell wares, he said.

Due to public outcry against private development on public parkland, however, Gulbranson now says that the prospect of a public-private partnership seems unlikely. The still-unfinished proposal now focuses only on the school district’s portion of the park, he said.

But if the school district determines that the land is surplus property that should be sold, other public agencies would have a shot at buying it before such private developers as Gulbranson, Ward and the residents pointed out.