EQUESTRIAN GROUP OPPOSES DOG PARK PLANS.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS - A group of Waverly Heights homeowners doesn't want a three-acre site at Conejo Creek Park going to the dogs.

The residents have formed a group called WHOA - Waverly Horse and Home Owners Association - to fight development of a dog park, and will ask the Conejo Recreation and Park District at its meeting tonight to reconsider the project.

``This neighborhood is full of horses . . . and a dog park and horses can't coexist,'' said Marilee Ullmann, a WHOA member who added that an equestrian trail traverses by the planned dog park. ``There are a lot of safety issues there, plus the extra traffic this may bring. There is no direct access off the freeway and (the cars) must come through our neighborhood.

``This is a long-standing 40-year-old rural equestrian neighborhood and you know the whole town has been developed out of any public riding facilities,'' said Ullmann, a 39-year resident an a member of an equestrian group. ``This is the last safe place we have to ride.''

Resident Bob McQuaid, who spoke out against the dog park at Tuesday's City Council session and is expected to speak at today's meeting, said his Waverly Heights neighborhood is already impacted by traffic during the annual Conejo Valley Days event.

``No informed people will believe that horses and dogs will interact passively,'' he said. ``It's an accident waiting to happen.''

The dog park is one of several projects in a revised master plan for the 120-acre park at Janss Road and the Moorpark Freeway. The northern section of the park has been developed with the city library, Goebel Senior Adult Center, Teen Center and Conejo Creek North Park.

``I don't think there is a safety concern,'' said Susan Holt, park district board member. ``And I think the traffic concerns have been mitigated.''

Holt also disputed Ullmann's claims that the focus group that helped revise the master plan was hand-picked by the district.

``People volunteered,'' she said. ``Believe me, everything we do we do above-board so people can't make accusations like that.

`We had a group of people working on the master plan and there was a lot of give and take. There were people who represented various interest groups.

``Not everybody who is involved with equestrian in the valley is opposed to this.''

Ullmann, who's used the park for the past 20 years, said she and her core group of five people surveyed some 400 homes surrounding the park last weekend and that 98 percent of the people polled opposed the project.

``Almost 100 percent of these people don't want it,'' she said. ``A few don't care because they don't use (the park).''

Ullmann wants the Recreation and Park District to re-examine the dog park plan.

Holt said she doesn't know what the board will do with the request.

``We are not against dogs. We are dog lovers,'' Ullmann said. ``The idea of putting a three-acre chain-link fence around open space will destroy the ambience and it doesn't go with the equestrian rural neighborhood.''