THOUSAND OAKS : Planners Consider Electronics Store

The Thousand Oaks Planning Commission will consider a proposal tonight to build an electronics store across the street from The Oaks Mall that has drawn opposition from some residents.

The proposal to build a Circuit City store on a vacant lot at the southwest corner of Lynn Road and Hillcrest Drive has elicited letters and phone calls from at least three nearby homeowners, Senior Planner Jon Shepherd said.

The homeowners, who live at the Racquet Club Villas condominium complex on the northeast corner of the intersection, have complained to city planners that the proposed retail store would increase traffic congestion, Shepherd said.

The residents have also said that Circuit City should open its store inside the mall, which has vacancies, rather than build a new structure, Shepherd said.

The city’s planning staff has recommended that the Planning Commission approve the project.

“Planners don’t look at marketing issues,” such as whether the mall would be an appropriate location for a Circuit City outlet, Shepherd said.

The proposed 23,800-square-foot store is about half the size of a shopping center that had previously been approved for the site, according to a Planning Department report. The proposed 43,000-square-foot shopping center was approved by the Planning Commission in 1989, but the owner of the property has since abandoned that proposal in favor of the more modest Circuit City project, Shepherd said.

The Circuit City store would attract an additional 2,450 vehicles per day to the area, officials estimate. The previously approved shopping center had been expected to draw about 4,400 vehicles per day, according to the planning report.