Bike Motocross Track Considered

Camarillo may well be turning into a mecca for youth. Park district officials are not only rolling ahead with plans for a skateboard park, but are considering a proposal for a bicycle motocross raceway.

Raceway organizers, who have already submitted more than 600 signatures to the Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District, informed park officials at a meeting Wednesday that they may have found an unnamed benefactor who could temporarily donate land for the BMX park, but asked if the district had another site available.

“The American Bicycle Assn. would design the track, put the fence around it and insure it all year,” said Bobby Jones, 14, who spearheaded the petition drive.

And Ted Saville, owner of the Camarillo Bike Shop, told the board that he would gather the materials and volunteers needed to construct the park. He estimated it would cost about $20,000 to get the park up and running.

“We’d like to get a 3- to 5-acre chunk of parks and rec land,” Saville said. “We’ve noticed in other cities that the most successful parks were on park district property.”

Park officials said they have a couple of sites in mind, including a barranca on city property between Mission Oaks and Mission Verde parks.

“We will investigate the matter and see if there is some creative way of doing this,” said Paul Rockenstein, board chairman.

Ventura County already has a BMX raceway in Simi Valley and another in Ventura, but the teenagers said transportation to those parks poses a problem.

Meanwhile, park officials also decided to hire architect Ken Wormhoudt of Santa Cruz to design Ventura County’s first full-size, publicly owned skateboard park. Wormhoudt, who is currently designing mini-skateboard parks in Ventura, will soon be meeting with Camarillo skateboarders to discuss their preferences for the new park.

The board voted unanimously at its meeting last month to set aside $100,000 to build the 10,000-square-foot facility at Pleasant Valley Park, on the corner of Ponderosa Road and Temple Avenue.

Since then, the Camarillo City Council has asked to see plans before it commits any funds to the project. The council’s finance committee is scheduled to meet this month to discuss contributing approximately $50,000 toward the project’s total cost of $175,000. The remaining $25,000 would likely come from public donations.