Westlake Village OKs Major Development

The Westlake Village City Council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday night to approve construction of Westlake North, a residential and commercial development that will be the largest in the planned city’s history.

“It is good for the community,” Mayor Franklin Pelletier said, citing the $31.7 million worth of concessions the developer agreed to in exchange for council approval.

Pelletier, Councilwoman Bonnie Klove, Councilman Kenneth E. Rufener and Councilman Irwin A. Shane voted to approve the project. Councilwoman Berniece E. Bennett cast the dissenting vote, but said she did so because she wanted more information about the development company, Westlake Village Associates, and the savings and loans institutions that comprise it.

Westlake North would be built on a 129-acre, horseshoe-shaped property that surrounds the Valley Oaks Memorial Park Cemetery north of the Ventura Freeway and east of Lindero Canyon Road.

Westlake Village Associates first proposed 400 condominiums and 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, including six-story buildings. But the proposal eventually was reduced to 250 dwelling units, 1.4 million square feet of commercial space and a height limit of four stories.

The commercial area is to include a 960,000-square-foot office park and 454,000 square feet of general commercial space with a shopping center and a four-story, 250-room hotel.

After a two-day public hearing on Nov. 15 and 16, in sessions that ran past midnight both nights, the council and Westlake Village Associates reached an agreement under which the developer would provide several concessions in exchange for approval of Westlake North, including a guarantee to preserve the Westlake Village Golf Course, which the developer owns, for 200 years.

The firm also agreed to build a four-acre park within Westlake North and to pay for $6.5 million in street improvements and pay $3.5 million the city could use for a new library and other projects, such as storm drains.

Pelletier, who did not seek re-election this year, and Shane, who was defeated, leave office on Dec. 6. They will be replaced by James E. Emmons, the town’s former city manager, and businessman Douglas R. Yarrow.

Tuesday’s council vote was known as a “first reading.” Passage of the bill must be confirmed by a second vote. The council scheduled that vote for Dec. 6, before the new council members are seated.