RESIDENTS SPARK PARK-PLAN REVIVAL; PETITION DRIVE GIVES NEW PLAY TO NEGLECTED PROJECT.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

Teri McLaughlin moved into her Newbury Park home off Kimber Drive in November, just around the corner from a neighborhood church and within walking distance of the local elementary school her newborn daughter will attend.

And McLaughlin's new home is just blocks away from a neighborhood park she hoped her daughter would play in with the other community kids.

Instead, the 8.2-acre lot slated to be the Kimber Playfield has grown over with weeds, wild grass and broken glass bottles. Though plans for the park have been on the Conejo Recreation and Park District's books for more than 18 years, the $500,000 project has fallen through for lack of funding.

``I just don't understand. People have been paying taxes for years in this area, and still there is no park,'' said McLaughlin, who initiated a petition drive last week to push the park district to reconsider the park.

``A lot of the people moved to these houses because it was close to this park site. Some of the first people in the area moved in with kids who are now in their 20s who never saw a park,'' she said. ``I just want this next generation of kids to be able to use this site.''

With more than 500 signatures already collected, McLaughlin and a dozen residents who live near the playground site will present their petition to the Conejo Recreation and Park District board at Thursday night's meeting.

Parks Administrator Tom Sorensen said the district still hopes to develop the park but cannot begin work until it secures the money needed to also pay for the park's maintenance.

On its latest budget for capital improvement projects, dated June 4, the Kimber Playfield is listed as an unfunded project without priority with an estimated price tag of half a million dollars.

Sorensen said the district has been cautious about building new parks across the city because of dwindling funds from both the county and the state. Since 1992, for instance, the state has shifted about $1.2 million away from the park district each year.

Still, the district has in recent years identified Newbury Park as one of the district's zones in greatest need of additional parks, and Sorensen said the Kimber Playfield could get help from a grant. But the first step would be to complete a master plan detailing the work needed to build and maintain the park.

Sorensen recommended that the district begin developing the master plan and has included $5,000 in this year's new budget to cover the cost.

Local residents said they are collecting signatures to persuade the board to pursue the master plan this year.

The pocket cul-de-sacs and residential streets off Kimber Drive boast dozens of young families that recently moved into the new tracts. Parent and resident Gabriela Vickrey said the promise of a park was one of the main amenities attracting her to the neighborhood nearly two years ago.

``We thought it would be a nice area for the kids, and I still think it will be a nice area but right now it's just an open lot,'' said Vickrey, a mother of two. ``It's not gated off and if kids went in there it's just not safe. They just leveled the weeds recently, but there are still broken bottles.''