Oak Park council delays vote on weekend gardeners

The Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council this week delayed making a recommendation to Ventura County supervisors to ban or restrict the hours of noisy weekend gardeners in the affluent unincorporated area.

Some on the five-member council were disappointed that only four members of the public showed up to speak on the issue Tuesday.

"I honestly thought we'd have a heck of a lot more people here," council member Chris Chapman said.

The council, which met at the Oak Park Library, is hoping more residents will show up at its Nov. 29 meeting to give additional input on the issue.

Of the four public speakers Tuesday night, three favored an outright weekend ban, while one said she preferred only for the gardeners' loud leaf blowers to be prohibited like other communities have done.

While council Chairman Alon Glickstein favors an outright weekend ban on professional gardening services, two other members of the council, Mike McReynolds and Drew Fountaine, said they favored merely cutting down the gardeners' hours on weekends.

The council has no legislative authority. It is strictly an advisory panel to county Supervisor Linda Parks, whose district encompasses the east county community, and the rest of the Board of Supervisors.