Local News in Brief : Thousand Oaks OKs Changes for North Ranch Developer

Thousand Oaks City Council has approved a plan by Prudential Insurance Co. to reduce by more than half the number of housing units planned for the company’s exclusive North Ranch development in order to devote more land to single-family homes.

A unanimous council vote Tuesday night made the most extensive change in the city’s land-use plan for North Ranch since the council approved the development’s plan in 1972.

The council decision came after Prudential asked to reduce the number of town houses and condominiums. The change reflects the waning demand for condominiums and the growing demand for single-family homes on large lots, said Don Mallas, a consultant for Prudential.

The council approved a reduction from the 7,100 dwellings approved in 1972 to 2,800. About 2,000 units have been built. No more condominiums or town homes will be built, Mallas said, so land will be available mostly for one-acre lots for 838 single-family homes.

He did not know how many single-family homes had been planned. The firm needed council approval for the change because it reduces the population density envisioned in the city plan.

The council also approved a request to delete sites for an elementary and an intermediate school, relocate a proposed nine-hole golf course and build a nine-acre shopping center, Mallas said.

North Ranch is in a hilly area of eastern Thousand Oaks, north of the Ventura Freeway.

Most of the houses on one-acre sites are selling for about $700,000, Mallas said. Estates are selling for $1 million and up.