ELECTIONS THOUSAND OAKS CITY COUNCIL : Campaigns Dominated by Issues of Growth

In an election focused on the issues of increased traffic, air pollution and crime, nine City Council candidates in Thousand Oaks say they are determined to keep the city from becoming another San Fernando Valley.

All nine council candidates--including incumbents Alex Fiore and Lawrence E. Horner--cite some aspect of growth as the most important issue in the race for three open seats.

While Fiore and Horner are emphasizing long records of service to the city, their seven challengers are hammering away at the theme that steady growth could destroy the small-town environment that drew many to Thousand Oaks.

Although both incumbents support growth-control measures, Fiore and Horner differ on how to manage construction over the next decade.

The 64-year-old Fiore is seeking his eighth council term after serving for more than 26 years. He takes credit for supporting municipal controls against development of sensitive ridgelines and against cutting down oak trees.

Fiore said he believes there are enough growth controls in place with Measure A, an initiative passed in 1980 that limits new housing construction to 500 residences a year.

“We’ve got controlled growth,” Fiore said. “I don’t think traffic is that bad. We could always improve on it.”

In addition to broad growth questions, the campaign has focused on a proposal to build a government center and arts auditorium at the former Jungleland site in Thousand Oaks.

One of the major proponents of the Jungleland project, Fiore has drawn criticism from people who oppose the plan to build the $63-million civic center.

He opposes placing a measure on the Jungleland issue on the ballot, putting him in opposition to Horner, who supports a citywide referendum on the project.

A Northrop Corp. vice president, Horner, 60, is seeking his fifth term after more than 16 years on the council.

He is pushing for more open space in the city. He also supports building more affordable housing.

During the 10 years since the growth-control measure went into effect, city planners have approved permits for an average of 594 residences a year, according to a city building official.

The growth limits exclude affordable housing, and in some years when there were few applications for development, the City Council has allowed the unused housing quota to be saved for later allocation.

Horner says that practice has created an imbalance in growth that alarms city residents. Population jumped after the passage of Measure A, from 77,000 in 1980 to about 103,000 today, he said. He opposes carrying over unused housing quotas from year to year.

“People, when they are concerned about growth, they don’t care about 1998. They want to know the impact in 1991 or 1992,” Horner said.

After supporting the Jungleland civic center site for many years, Horner says he now opposes the project because it has become bigger than citizens originally envisioned.

In addition to the seats held by Fiore and Horner, a third council seat held by Tony Lamb is at stake. Lamb is not running for reelection. The remaining seven candidates also say that the questions of growth and the Jungleland project are important issues in the campaign.

Financial consultant Ray Grams, 26, the youngest council candidate, called the Jungleland project “a big white elephant around the city’s neck” and said the council should work to donate more acreage for open space.

The city should also prepare for the development of Jordan and Ahmanson ranches by doing an environmental report on a possible annexation, a measure that the city of Simi Valley is now undertaking, he said.

Patricia Halfhill, 52, an operations manager for a private investigations firm in Ventura and a Thousand Oaks resident for 22 years, said a jump in population has congested city streets and strained schools and water resources.

Halfhill has emphasized stronger growth controls, but acknowledges that it’s unrealistic to think that the city can survive with no growth at all.

Halfhill also is critical of council members who are reluctant to put a ballot measure on Jungleland before voters.

Bob Hughes, 52, a former radio station director, said he is committed to making sure that Jungleland is on the ballot.

He has begun helping citizens groups gather signatures to place the Jungleland project on the ballot for a third time. Hughes contends that the City Council has been unresponsive to residents who oppose the project.

One of the strongest proponents of stricter traffic controls and of building a new civic center is Judy Lazar, 49, a planning commissioner for Thousand Oaks and former executive director of Conejo Valley Senior Concerns, an agency that provides services for the elderly.

Lazar decided to run for a council seat after more than four years on the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission, two of them as chairwoman.

During that time, proposals have come before the Planning Commission on how to revitalize an ailing business district along Thousand Oaks Boulevard, among them the Jungleland project.

Jungleland would “create a downtown core that’s needed in a city of over 100,000 people,” Lazar said.

Lazar also supports stronger controls on growth, including an ordinance to protect more ridgelines and requirements that developers provide road improvements.

Another proponent of the Jungleland project is Bob O’Brien, 60, a former city building director who worked for Thousand Oaks for 19 years before retiring in May, 1988.

O’Brien said his experience in city government has made him conscious of preserving the small-town quality of Thousand Oaks. He has made preserving air quality and the development of parks the main issues in his campaign.

“I want to protect the qualities in the valley that we moved here for,” he said.

Michael Markey, 35, a Compton police detective who has raised the largest amount of money in the race, is financing most of his campaign himself. Markey is president of the Shadow Mountain Homeowners Assn. in Newbury Park.

Markey believes crime is one of the most important issues facing the city as population increases. He supports increased law enforcement and called for the creation of substations to take reports from citizens who live far away from the Sheriff’s Department station on Olsen Road.

Although the Sheriff’s Department considers the crime rate in Thousand Oaks to be one of the lowest in the western United States among cities with a population of 100,000 or more, Markey said citizens face growing gang violence and drug trafficking as more residences are built.

“I’m looking at it from the perspective of growth in the next five to 10 years,” he said.

Elois Zeanah, 48, is making her third bid for the City Council after running in 1988 and 1989. A former campaign manager for supervisor-elect Maria VanderKolk, Zeanah describes herself as a community activist who has focused on the effect of growth on the Thousand Oaks environment.

She has opposed the Jungleland project, saying it is an example of poor municipal planning.

“Traffic and air pollution have worsened,” Zeanah said. “We can’t let Thousand Oaks become another San Fernando Valley.”