CITY PUTS OUT CALL FOR IDEAS; MOORPARK PONDERS LARGER PLAY AREAS.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Daily News Staff Writer

They've been growing by leaps and bounds for several years now - the local youth sports organizations, which have increasingly bumped elbows, and tempers, as they all try to use one city park for their games and practices.

Hoping to relieve some of that tension and give everyone more room, the city of Moorpark is considering ways to expand Arroyo Vista Community Park into its full 69 acres.

City officials, along with a design consultant, will hold a park planning workshop tonight to solicit input from the community to help guide the expansion.

``We've had groups coming to us recently asking to add amenities and offering to pay for them,'' said Mary Lindley, the city's director of community services. ``Because we don't have a recent master plan for the whole park, we have to do this piecemeal. We'd like to have a long-range plan as to what the park should look like, instead of making these decisions in a vacuum.''

Last year, the council agreed to pay $14,000 to the consultant, Takata Association of South Pasadena, to create a conceptual design for the 18-acre undeveloped portion of the park.

Although it had adequately served organizations in the nearly six years it has been open, the park's space began to be a bit scarce last fall.

In October, the Moorpark Girls Softball organization asked the City Council to allow it to build a third diamond at Arroyo Vista and move its operations from fields in the Mountain Meadows area.

But the American Youth Soccer Organization and Packer Football cried foul, saying that a new field would significantly reduce the amount of space they'd have to play.

Ultimately, with the other groups' blessing, the council agreed to the move, and the softball field was built this winter. At the same time, the sports organizations also urged the council to consider beginning construction of the remainder of the park.

Representatives of local sports leagues said they were encouraged by the council's willingness to consider an expansion.

``With the advent of the tennis courts and girls softball field, the city is becoming more and more aware that the existing space is getting more and more cramped,'' said David Kropp, regional commissioner for AYSO. ``There's only so much you can do in a limited space.''

Currently, the park includes a recreation center and gymnasium, soccer and football fields, a roller hockey rink and portable skate park, a play lot, picnic pavilion, restrooms and a snack bar in the developed portion of the park. It will soon add tennis courts.

Workshop participants tonight will work in groups to determine what the park should include. The consultant will take the suggestions and come up with a design concept that will be brought to the public before the final report goes to the park and recreation commission by June.

Lindley said it was impossible to determine how much a park expansion would cost until the new amenities are further known.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Arroyo Vista Recreation Center, 4550 Tierra Rejada Blvd.