CAMARILLO : District OKs Limited Funds for 3 Parks

Three Camarillo parks that are still just dirt and weeds are set to be graded, cleared and seeded with grass, following a Camarillo park district board decision.

But if residents want trees, playground equipment or any other amenities in the parks, they may have to raise funds for it themselves, Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District officials said Thursday.

The district board voted Wednesday to divvy up $415,000 in park development funds, accrued from developers fees and property taxes, among three undeveloped neighborhood parks.

The district will spend up to $280,000 on Woodcreek Park at Woodcreek Road and Lynnwood Drive; $90,000 for Quito Park at Quito Court and Calle Dia; and $45,000 for an unnamed park on Calle Higuera, district General Manager Eldred Lokker said.

Because parks officials anticipate further state budget cuts next fiscal year, Lokker said, residents cannot count on the park district to spend any more money on the three parks in the near future.

In response to the district’s financial crunch, some neighborhood groups are already gearing up to hold fund-raisers and seek contributions that will take over where the park district’s funding leaves off.

Carol Schau has been organizing residents in her neighborhood around Quito Park to help develop the five-acre lot that has been sitting unused for five years, she said.

Some neighbors have volunteered to buy trees, others to help install sprinkler systems, she said.

Although Quito Park is the only park in the neighborhood of about 300 houses, Schau said residents accept that they cannot depend entirely on the park district to develop the site.

“Of course we want it handed to us,” she said. “But that’s not going to happen. With the economy like it is, you just can’t get what you used to get.”