City Visions : A Thousand Oaks urban planner is bringing some very definite ideas to the first Eco-Cities Conference at UCLA.

Conjure up this image: a plot of land the size of the Ahmanson Ranch or Jordan Ranch, approved for development into home sites. But when they’re built, they’re all clustered on 10% of the land, leaving 90% open space.

The developed part would be about the size of Janss Mall in Thousand Oaks but with houses, offices and shopping all clustered in a low-rise, tree-shaded urban village. Auto traffic would be de-emphasized through reduced parking spaces, with the money saved used for beefed-up public transit. A light-rail shuttle would connect it with the planned county commuter rail station.

But most people would have bought homes there because they were also able to have their businesses there, where folks can walk to work--similar to the European village landscape many of us dream of moving to when we retire.

This vision is the brainchild of Joseph Smythe of Thousand Oaks. Abetted with computer-generated images, his vision will be a feature of the first Ecological Cities Conference at UCLA beginning Friday.

Smythe is an urban planner who has been holding “citizen planner” meetings in Ventura County since January. He will report on the vision that he and the other citizen planners he has met with have for the near future.

“The master plan for our county should fix things so that future development doesn’t spread all over our open space,” Smythe said. “At the same time, we should get to build enough so that our kids and seniors won’t have to move out of the county because it’s too expensive.”

Quite a tall order. Conservative and radical at the same time. But sufficiently compelling to have attracted the attention of three Ventura County supervisors.

Last year, when Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee heard about Smythe encouraging the county to cluster on only a small area of certain yet-to-be-built communities, she told him that if he expected to get anywhere, he’d better drum up some public support. So he did.

All this year, he’s been having meetings, and they attracted the attention of another supervisor, Vicky Howard. “She drove over and showed up for one,” Smythe said, “and said she shared our concerns.”

From the organizer of the UCLA conference, I learned that another supervisor, Maria VanderKolk, is registered to attend Friday’s event. So I called her to find out why she’s “driving over.”

“We have an opportunity to grow without having to rip things up. We can get it right the first time,” she said. “We have a great General Plan already, (providing for) 900,000 people by 2010. I just want to see it’s done the right way.”

Topics that will be covered at the conference include “Changing Lending Policies,” “Pedestrian Friendly Developments” and “Public Transit Oriented Developments.” All these will be published by the organizers.

One presenter, Bill Shireman, president of California Futures, a business think-tank, will outline specific ways government can become “pro-active.” He will detail “Incentives, Taxes and Fees to Support Eco-City Building.”

An example of “incentives” is close at hand. Thousand Oaks has a points system used when evaluating applications for building permits. Things go better if building products made from recycled materials such as insulation and paving are specified.

David Goldstein, a county official, says he is trying to have something similar to the Thousand Oaks incentive adopted countywide.

If you want information on eco-cities, you might consider a “drive over” to a citizen planner meeting in Ventura County.

* FYI

* Citizen planner meetings are open to the public. Call 373-3712 (Joseph Smythe).

* For information on construction products made from recycled materials, call the Ventura County Solid Waste Management Department, 648-9242 (David Goldstein).

* Representatives of neighborhood associations, local zoning boards, city councils and developers should consider attending the Ecological Cities Conference: Urban Growth and the Environment on Friday and Saturday at UCLA, Perloff Hall and Dickson Auditorium. Reservations required. Call (213) 386-8873 or (213) 662-5207.

* “Incentives for Eco-Cities,” a report published by California Futures, (916) 929-9207.