Deal for Bigger Project Rejected : Thousand Oaks Planners Cut Dos Vientos Proposal

The Thousand Oaks Planning Commission voted unanimously Friday to reduce by more than half a proposal to build 3,940 homes on the Dos Vientos ranch near the southwest border of the city.

The commission agreed to allow construction of 1,600 homes and condominiums on the rural property between Potrero Road and the Ventura Freeway immediately west of the Thousand Oaks city limit. The 4,570-acre Dos Vientos ranch is one of the largest undeveloped properties in the area.

Project developers, Courtly Homes Inc. of Los Angeles, and property owners, Operating Engineers Pension Trust of Pasadena, had offered to donate property for three schools and a library as well as several public parks and a site for senior citizen housing in exchange for approval of full development of the ranch.

But the commission agreed to forgo the proposed donations and reduce the project’s size because of traffic and noise that would be created in the Newbury Park area of Thousand Oaks.

The approved plan includes a shopping center, new roads and other public improvements.

“We feel that 1,600 homes is within the range of development that the community can absorb,” said Mike Penilla, a board member of Potrero Valley Homeowners Assn., which represents about 3,000 homeowners in the area and had opposed the original project.

“The developer tried to sweeten the deal with parks and schools but you really don’t need them if you don’t have 4,000 homes built,” Penilla said.

Public hearings before the City Council, which must approve the land use changes needed for development of the property, will likely be held in the fall, city officials said.

The property must also be approved for annexation to Thousand Oaks by the Ventura County Local Agency Formation Commission before it can be developed, a city report said.