County will celebrate grand reopening of Tapo Canyon Park
Nearly $900,000 in restorations have been completed
By Darleen Principe darleen@theacorn.com

The Ventura County Parks Department will celebrate the reopening of Tapo Canyon Regional Park next week, after spending more than $880,000 to restore park facilities that were destroyed during the 2003 Simi fires.

The 211-acre site at 4651 Tapo Canyon Road will feature 16 fully serviced camping sites with recreational vehicle connections, full-sized restroom and shower facilities, an equestrian arena and an archery range.

Ron Van Dyck, deputy director of the Ventura County Parks Department, said that children's playground equipment and a sheltered barbecue area will be constructed at a later date because of budget constraints.

"We're really excited," Van Dyck said. "It's been long overdue because of the fires, the floods and all the redesigning work we did to make sure we could incorporate everything. Because the cost of construction continues to rise the longer we wait, we had to build what we could as fast as we could."

Tapo Canyon Regional Park was closed in 2003 after it was determined to be unsafe to the public due to severe fire damage.

Plans to reconstruct the park were submitted in 2004 but were halted when heavy rains caused serious flooding in the area. Construction at the park was officially completed in December 2007. Prior to the fires, the park consisted of picnic areas, a restroom, two equestrian arenas, tent camping and play equipment.

Van Dyck said the redesign mostly consists of "one-on-one replacement" of facilities, along with the relocation and expansion of one equestrian arena and the restroom structure.

"We relocated the restroom to an area that's more towards the middle, and now it includes showers," Van Dyck said. "We've also installed a different type of roof, to make it less susceptible to catching on fire."

The Conejo Valley Archers Club, who've leased a portion of the site from the county, operate a 28-target archery range in the park that's open to club members and guests.

The reopening ceremony for Tapo Canyon Regional Park will begin at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 26.

For more information, call the parks department at (805) 654-3951 or visit the website gsa.countyofventura.org/parks.

To contact the Conejo Valley Archers Club, call (805) 5301339 or visit www.cvarchers.org.