LOCALS ANGERED OVER PARK PLANS.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

VAL VERDE - A meeting of the Civic Association on Thursday will focus largely on community dissatisfaction over county plans to renovate Val Verde's central park.

Last week, county officials presented the town with a $1.36 million plan to improve its park - which residents call ``the heart of the community'' - but Val Verde leaders say their interests were ignored.

``This is about not getting our voice heard at all,'' said Gina Nordenstrom, spokeswoman for the Val Verde Civic Association. ``There are residents that feel like a bunch of small kids because (the county) pats us on the head and says, 'OK, we'll listen to you,' and then they just ignores us.''

Talks over renovations to the park have been ongoing for about a decade, the money coming from Proposition A and Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich's discretionary fund, according to Millie Jones, a senior deputy for Antonovich.

Under the current plan, there will be several improvements, including new benches, new restrooms, improvements to the baseball field, resurfaced tennis courts and new landscaping and irrigation.

According to Jones, the planned renovations will provide big benefits to the community.

``It's an important project that will significantly impact the community for all ages. The park is the center of the community - this will be much nicer,'' Jones said. ``Supervisor Antonovich is pleased to be moving ahead with the capital improvement project.''

But Dan Nordenstrom, chairman of the Val Verde beautification committee, was outraged by the county's decision to move forward with a project that did not receive broad community support.

``We've had four meetings out here with the county regarding what we wanted incorporated into this project and not one of those issues has come to bear. They're spending $1.3 million and they're not doing one of the things that the community prioritized,'' Dan Nordenstrom said.

Residents had voiced a desire for lights on the tennis courts, relocation of the baseball field to face the hills instead of the street and for the playground to stay close to the community center, where it has been for more than 60 years, said Patty Gustafson, Val Verde's representative to the Castaic Area Town Council.

``From what I saw, they asked (the community) about it and then the county head of parks just stepped in and said that he would do it his way,'' Gustafson said. ``It was sort of a shock - I guess that's the way it is.''

Sheila Ortega, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, said that time pressure and logistics made the community's wishes impossible to grant.

``We had been taking community input, but we were getting pressure to start the renovations and the director determined that we had addressed what we could and that we were going to proceed,'' Ortega said.

Ortega addressed each of the community requests with doubts over their feasibility: The tennis court lights would be too expensive, the playground interferes with drainage and the baseball field would not fit if moved, she said.

Dan Nordenstrom disagreed.

``This really took the wind out of the sails of a lot of people in the community about volunteering their input. It's disillusioned a lot of people.''

Nicholas Grudin, [phone]

nicholas.grudin(at)dailynews.com