THOUSAND OAKS : Citizens to Seek New Residential Controls

Citizens will be asked to help draft a law that would curb crowding in single-family neighborhoods in Thousand Oaks.

The City Council, after hearing homeowners pack City Hall to denounce crowding and call for controls, decided Tuesday night to use residents on a new committee.

The committee has not yet been formed, but Councilman Larry Horner said Wednesday that he expects to have a group ready to work on a new ordinance by the end of next week.

“We will try to provide an ordinance that’s got a little more teeth to it,” Horner said.

Homeowners groups and council members for three years have been studying ways to limit what they say are growing numbers of people who rent rooms in single-family neighborhoods.

They have pressed for regulations to solve parking and other problems when homes are used as boardinghouses.

Thousand Oaks zoning laws permit houses to be rented only to families or groups of less than six people. But the state Supreme Court struck down a similar law in Santa Barbara 10 years ago.

The law was ruled unconstitutional because the definition of a family is not clear-cut, City Atty. Mark Sellers said.

Code enforcement officers have been unable to enforce all but the most blatant violations. But in heated speeches punctuated by frequent bursts of applause, 24 residents told the council of their dissatisfaction with the lack of enforcement.

Homeowner Elois Zeanah said some homeowners were unhappy that a draft ordinance actually increased the number of people who can live in a residence.

“This was the third ordinance in three years, and none of them would have worked,” said Zeanah, who represents the Conejo Hills/Lynn Estates Homeowners Assn.

As written, the ordinance “opens single-family homes to become overcrowded combat zones of crime and blight,” Zeanah said. “This ordinance would have legalized the problems we have now.”