Rejection of Theater Tower Is Overturned

Despite protests from some residents, the Thousand Oaks City Council on Wednesday overturned a Planning Commission decision to reject a 105-foot-tall theater tower at the Jungleland civic center.

“I think a great majority of people in this community want this auditorium, and I’m convinced that in order to have this auditorium, it needs to be 105 feet high,” Councilman Alex Fiore said.

Fiore’s comments came before the council voted 4 to 1 to approve design changes that would allow the performing arts theater to rise 64 feet above the adjacent Ventura Freeway, not 25 feet as initially planned.

The council also tossed out a requirement it had imposed three years ago that set the maximum height for its performing arts auditorium at 75 feet.

Most of the 23 speakers who appeared before the council supported the height of the tower and said it was a critical factor in its design.

“You’re not going to attract first-class revenue to a second-class auditorium,” dance instructor Vicky Simons said.

But Councilwoman Elois Zeanah disagreed. She accused other council members of violating city guidelines to erect what will someday be the tallest structure in Thousand Oaks.

“I believe it’s wrong for a city to give itself a special privilege,” Zeanah said.

The tower’s height is the latest dispute in a long-simmering battle over a $63.8-million civic center complex under construction at what was once a wild animal park.

The city Planning Commission on April 6 voted 3 to 1 to reject the tower’s height after some residents objected.

On Wednesday, seven environmentalists, homeowners and longtime opponents of the Jungleland development urged the council to reject the nine-story building. They said they viewed it as an eyesore along the Ventura Freeway corridor.

Mary Weisbrock, director of the environmental group Save Open Space, called the tower a monstrosity and urged the council to trim the tower.

“Allowing this monstrous structure will jeopardize the state scenic corridor status for (U.S.) 101,” she said. “We put a man on the moon--this can be redesigned.”

An architectural consultant and two city planners spent much of the nearly five-hour hearing explaining that the complex could not be redesigned without incurring considerable costs.

The tower is part of an 1,800-seat performing arts auditorium that city officials hope will lure world-class theater, musical and dance companies to the area.

Planners said the height of the building is the minimum necessary to hide scenery and to raise and lower sets used in performances.

To preserve the design, but lower the building, the city would have to blast through a layer of bedrock under the 23-acre site on Conejo School Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard, architectural consultant Robert Newsom said.

Reconfiguring the complex would add more than $4 million in grading and excavation costs, he said.

In addition to the grading, the city would have to spend more in architectural fees to redesign the complex, said Edward Johnduff, a city administrative services manager in charge of the project.

The city has already spent $4.5 million on architectural fees, he said.

“We have set a precedent for civic buildings, that they be unique, that they stand out in this community,” Councilwoman Judy Lazar said. “You can’t please everybody.”