Neighbors Campaign to Halt Building of New Store : Development: Lynn Ranch residents call the Circuit City project an eyesore. They submit 1,276 signatures to Thousand Oaks officials.

Eight months after Thousand Oaks planners OKd construction of a Circuit City store near The Oaks mall, a group of local homeowners has mounted a belated campaign to kill the project on grounds that it will be an eyesore.

Picketers on Monday circled the corner of Hillcrest Drive and Lynn Road where construction workers are erecting 40-foot-tall cinder-block walls that form the store’s skeleton.

Manny Ferrara, 63, a Lynn Ranch resident and spokesman for a group that calls itself Concerned Citizens of Thousand Oaks, said the building resembles a prison.

“It’s the ugliest structure that I have ever seen in my life. This is ugly, ugly !” Ferrara said. “I can’t tell you the anger, the absolute indignation, the people saying, ‘How did they ever put this thing here?’ ”

Opponents say their opinion is shared by others in the Conejo Valley. On Monday, they submitted petitions bearing 1,276 signatures calling on the city to stop construction before the building eclipses views of the scenic mountains.

Thousand Oaks officials say the group’s efforts are futile, because Circuit City’s permits were granted months ago and construction has already begun.

“You can’t stop the project when you get to this point,” Assistant City Atty. Robert K. Rogers Jr. said.

In a July 28 letter to City Manager Grant R. Brimhall, Planning Director Philip Gatch explained that the project was carefully scrutinized before it was approved on Jan. 6 by a 4-1 vote of the Planning Commission.

The Circuit City store is located near the entrance of Lynn Ranch, an unincorporated community whose roomy lots and expansive horse corrals have given it a reputation as a refuge from suburban sprawl.

Lynn Ranch residents said they did not oppose the project earlier because the city processed Circuit City’s application without notifying most of the homeowners. The city is not obliged to notify landowners whose property lies more than 300 feet from the site.

Had opposition surfaced earlier, neighbors could have appealed the development to the City Council. No one filed such an appeal within the required 20-day period.

Circuit City spokeswoman Ann Collier said the Richmond, Va.-based company has received about 20 complaints from Thousand Oaks residents since the furor erupted last week.

She said Circuit City planners did incorporate Mediterranean-style design in Thousand Oaks when they completed architectural plans for the project last year.

The 23,800-square-foot retail building that will eventually house the appliance and electronics store is only half-built. When completed, it will have a clay-tile roof, a sandstone-colored exterior and three towers that rise 40 to 43 feet above the ground.

Neighbors will have to put up with the gray structure for a few months longer, Collier said. Stucco will not be applied to the building until October.

The store is expected to open before the Christmas season begins.

One community leader did not object to the Circuit City store, but said it appears to be more imposing than originally presented.

“I thought it was going to be set back on the property and have a lower profile,” said Stephen J. Rubenstein, executive director of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, which is located across the street on Hillcrest Drive.

Opponents contend that the city has the authority to step in to modify the structure. They especially want to see the height lowered by several feet.

They pointed to cases where code enforcement and planning officials have cited property owners who violated Thousand Oaks’ design guidelines on finished buildings.

Last year, Ferrara noted, city officials cited a Westlake car dealer whose stark white building was not painted the agreed-upon earth tone shade.

“They tried to make that guy repaint his whole building because he was one little shade off, and then they have the audacity to allow this thing,” he said, referring to the Circuit City building.

Even if they fail to modify the project, some opponents say they will continue picketing the store when it opens near the end of the year.

“We will do that night and day,” Ferrara said. “If they rain on my parade, I’ll rain on theirs.”