New Housing OKd, With Strings Attached : MGM Ranch Developer Gives Thousand Oaks $8.5 Million, Free Land

Shapell Industries of Beverly Hills will give Thousand Oaks $8.5 million and more than 1,300 acres in exchange for the right to build homes and a light industrial park on the former MGM Ranch site.

In a 4-0 vote late Tuesday, the Thousand Oaks City Council approved an agreement to allow the development on 1,862 acres in the northwest corner of the city. Councilman Lee Laxdal was absent.

Under the agreement, the city may use the $8.5 million only for construction of public facilities, such as proposed civic and high school auditoriums and possible freeway improvement projects.

The city also will receive about 1,326 acres of open space, two acres for recreational vehicle storage, a new child-care center and 14 1/2 acres for a continuation high school and school bus storage facility.

In exchange, Shapell is guaranteed the right to build about 800 houses and 400 apartments, at a maximum rate of 150 per year. Construction can begin in 1991 and must be completed within 10 years.

Growth Restrictions

Ordinarily, a developer has to compete with other projects for the 500 housing permits available each year under the city’s growth-control law, which expires in 1995. The project will be exempt from any new restrictions on growth until the year 2001.

Shapell Industries is obligated to make up to 15% of the 400 apartment units affordable for moderate-income tenants.

Councilman Frank Schillo said the accord is the first agreement of its kind in Thousand Oaks. Such “development agreements” have become common in California since a state law allowing cities and developers to enter into such contracts was enacted in 1979, said Sheryl Patterson, an attorney for the League of California Cities.

The city is likely to approve other such agreements in the future, Schillo said.

“I was totally opposed to this agreement last year when it was first proposed, but after negotiating with the developer I came out firmly convinced that the city will be able to maintain control while giving Shapell some assurance that he will realize a return on his investment,” Schillo said.

Schillo said the $8.5 million will allow Thousand Oaks to build such much-needed projects as high school auditoriums.

The agreement was made despite protests from about 150 homeowners who signed a petition objecting to the project’s density.

“The $8.5 million carries a big stick,” said Jim Malch, a resident who attended the meeting Tuesday. “It clouds the vision as to what’s bad about this project.”

In particular, opponents object to giving Shapell Industries permission to make 80% of the 818 single-family homes two stories instead of one. Ordinarily, the city allows only 60% of units in a single development to be two stories, said John Prescott, chief planner for Thousand Oaks.

Minimum Lot Size

In addition, they said, the city is allowing the developer to build many of the units on the minimum lot size allowed under residential zoning--about one-eighth of an acre. The plan would cluster housing in some places, leaving large areas of open space.

“This represents a milestone, a change in a more urban direction, for Thousand Oaks,” said Pat Borison, whose property overlooks the former MGM Ranch. “There are some people who say we need more housing, but up to now, this is not the way it was done here.”

The current project is the third attempt to develop the property since Shapell Industries bought it from MGM in 1977. MGM had planned to move its studios there, but dropped the idea in the late 1960s.

In other action Tuesday, the council renewed for four years a rent-control ordinance that applies to 203 of the city’s more than 3,500 apartment units.