Advertisement

Fight Brews Over Road Extension in Cheeseboro Canyon : Parkland: Housing development proposal requires extension of Thousand Oaks Boulevard to the boundary of National Park Service’s canyon property.

Share
TIMES STAFF WRITER

A development project that would include a controversial road extension and threaten federal parkland in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area has environmentalists gearing up for a battle.

A Sunnyvale developer’s proposal to build more than 16 times the number of housing units allowed in the county’s general plan, on land just east of the national park, would require Thousand Oaks Boulevard to be extended to the boundary of the park’s Cheeseboro Canyon property in Agoura.

The county already has a right-of-way to build the four-lane boulevard through the heart of Cheeseboro Canyon, which the National Park Service bought in 1983 for $8 million. Thousand Oaks Boulevard now ends in Agoura Hills, to the west of the national park, and begins again at Las Virgenes Road, at the eastern edge of the site of the proposed development, known as Malibu Terrace.

Advertisement

Extension of the boulevard has been part of county highway plans since the 1960s. But the proposal by Las Virgenes Properties to build 1,816 housing units and 60,000 square feet of commercial space just east of the park will make the boulevard a key issue when the Regional Planning Commission considers the project next year.

The one-mile leg of Thousand Oaks Boulevard through Malibu Terrace, if it is approved by county officials, “would become a loaded gun pointed at Cheeseboro Canyon,” said David M. Brown, a Calabasas conservationist.

“Construction of Thousand Oaks Boulevard through the site will increase pressure to extend this major highway” through the park, according to an environmental impact report released this month.

The environmental report stated that putting the road through the park would destroy about 250 oak trees, block a source of water into the canyon floor, threaten wildlife habitats and erect barriers to wildlife migration.

National Park Service officials have asked the county to forgo its right to build the road through Cheeseboro Canyon. County Department of Public Works officials are considering different alignments for the road but have refused to drop the right of way, which the Park Service knew about when it bought the land in 1983.

The environmental report states that the developer needs to build 116 houses and 1,700 apartments to offset the cost of building Thousand Oaks Boulevard through the rugged, landslide-prone 494-acre property. About 9 million cubic yards would have to be graded, much of it to stabilize the site to allow the boulevard to be extended through the project, according to the report.

Advertisement

If the project were held to the general plan’s limit of 112 homes, the environmental report said, “it would not be economically viable for the project applicant to fund the improvement of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and stabilization of associated landslides.”

The report added, however, that a 112-home project might be feasible if Las Virgenes Properties were not asked to pay for the extension of Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

Jean Granucci, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Public Works, said Friday the department will recommend that Las Virgenes Properties be required to pay for its portion of the extension.

County public works officials contend that the road is needed as an east-west alternate route to the Ventura Freeway.

But Fran Pavley, an environmental activist and member of the Agoura Hills City Council, questioned the prudence of financing a road by permitting a developer to build a project 16 times more dense than county plan limits. “The environmental costs are too great,” she said.

Earlier this year, the Agoura Hills City Council voted not to complete the city’s portion of the four-lane boulevard. But whether that will be enough of a barrier to stop the county’s plans to build it through the park is unclear, Pavley said.

Advertisement

Putting the road into Cheeseboro Canyon, where a golden eagle was spotted Friday, “would bring the outside world into this little Eden in a very destructive way,” Brown said.

Advertisement