NEWBURY PARK : Commission Delays Housing Hearing

The Thousand Oaks Planning Commission postponed consideration of a proposal to build 230 housing units in Newbury Park after county officials raised concerns about traffic and flood control.

The commission Monday delayed a public hearing on the proposal by Borchard Villas Partners to build 181 condominiums and 49 houses on a 3 1/2-acre site just west of Borchard Road and south of the Ventura Freeway, commission Chairman Mervyn Kopp said.

The action came in response to letters received Monday from county flood control officials and Supervisor Maggie Kildee suggesting that the project may need to be redesigned, Kopp said.

Flood control officials said the developer may not need to build the earth-bottomed, storm water retention basins proposed for the north side of the site. The county is considering building retaining walls around a nearby flood control channel and making other improvements that would make the basins unnecessary, said Alex Sheydayi, the county’s deputy public works director.

Sheydayi said he expects the county to decide plans in the next few weeks.

In addition, Kildee’s letter stated the county’s opposition to a proposal that residents of the 49 houses enter and exit the freeway from Wendy Drive, which is part of an unincorporated area of the county. The 15,600 vehicles that travel Wendy Drive each day already exceed the maximum of 15,000 allowed by the county’s General Plan, officials said.