Thousand Oaks Council Sides With Owners of Satellite Dishes

The Thousand Oaks City Council on Tuesday night ordered planning officials to disregard the restrictions of homeowner groups when ruling on the installation of satellite receiving dishes, a victory for residents who want dishes that may violate neighborhood restrictions.

The 4-0 vote was a defeat for homeowner groups that had urged the city to adopt their aesthetic standards.

“Changing the law to suit a particular area is inappropriate,” said Councilman Lee Laxdal after a public hearing in which homeowner associations urged the city to follow their stricter rules for satellite dishes, increasingly used to vastly expand television viewing choices.

Widespread Controversy

The Thousand Oaks debate came as communities across the nation grapple with regulatory issues on the space-age receivers. It also raised concern that the city might be violating freedom of speech by enforcing homeowner regulations that, in some cases, effectively bar any outdoor antennas, including traditional roof-mounted ones.

The city already has regulations requiring homeowners to get permission before installing dishes, which must be color-coordinated with adjacent structures, be enclosed or otherwise screened from view and be no higher than 15 feet above ground.

The homeowner group requests for even stricter rules stemmed from a dispute that began when Bruce and Stephanie Maltz of the Westlake Village section of Thousand Oaks defied homeowner restrictions by erecting a 10-foot-wide satellite dish in their backyard. The Maltzes did not seek city approval first.

Before deciding on the homeowner groups’ request for stricter standards in certain neighborhoods, council members had been waiting for a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission last week on what authority cities have to regulate the dishes. The FCC said municipalities cannot outlaw dishes as a way of promoting such rival technologies as cable television, but could ban the dishes if they interfere with public health, safety or welfare or if they conflict with “reasonable and clearly defined” aesthetic values.

Officials Warned

City Atty. Mark Sellers warned the city against going too far.

“We should be very hesitant in delegating our decision on dishes to a non-elected homeowners association, particularly if that association takes a position of a flat ban,” Sellers said. “I think you would be stepping into private contract matters among property owners.”

Under the rules of the homeowner group overseeing the Maltzes’ area, outdoor antennas are forbidden. The Maltzes, in buying their home, accepted the rules and should abide by them, homeowner groups contended.

Angry residents notified the city after the Maltzes, who say their constitutional rights are being challenged, refused to take the dish down.

A hearing on whether to grant the Maltzes an after-the-fact permit for their dish will be scheduled now that the council has settled the issue of whether to follow homeowner association rules on dishes.