Annexation Idea Revived for Oak Park : Communities: Consultants cite a trio of options for the unincorporated area, including linking up with Thousand Oaks.

Consultants for the unincorporated community of Oak Park revived an old idea on Tuesday: that the community of more than 13,000 consider annexing to Thousand Oaks, its larger neighbor.

The consultants also said Oak Park could become its own city, but only if it engages in what community leader Ron Stark called the “choosing game”--choosing to contract police, animal control and parks services from neighboring cities.

And as a third option, consultants Arroyo Seco Associates of Pasadena said the current conditions in Oak Park don’t seem to be so bad.

“At no time during the course of our study was it expressed to us that existing service levels in Oak Park were deficient in any way,” the study said.

The consultants presented their study to the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Committee on Tuesday night.

“We are not going to advise you or dissuade you from becoming a city. That is not our intent,” said Philip VanderWilden of Arroyo Seco.

VanderWilden said the prospect of incorporation would require a more detailed financial analysis.

Although he stopped short of recommending annexation, he said that, based on his analysis, Oak Park can get “the most bang for the buck” by annexing with Thousand Oaks.

Some committee members said earlier Tuesday that annexation isn’t very likely.

“Most of the people that I talk to (in Oak Park) shudder at the thought. Most of the people in Thousand Oaks shudder at the thought,” committee member Stark said.

Committee member George Anterasian agreed. “We’d be so far on the fringes of Thousand Oaks geographically that I don’t think our community would get much attention,” he said.

Before the area could be annexed, Oak Park voters, the Thousand Oaks City Council and the Local Agency Formation Commission would have to agree to the action.

Some Oak Park residents favor cityhood, while others favor annexation. Community leaders even discussed annexation with Agoura Hills earlier this year. Although that city adjoins Oak Park, its location in Los Angeles County would complicate any annexation.

Arroyo Seco said Oak Park now enjoys “high levels of service in all of the areas studied with a few notable exceptions.”

The exceptions were libraries, police and public transportation, areas expected to improve if the community joins Thousand Oaks.

But the consultants gave Oak Park high marks for its parks and recreation programs, which it said probably would suffer if annexation occurs.

Parks in Oak Park are managed by the Rancho Simi Recreation and Parks District, while Thousand Oaks belongs to the Conejo Recreation and Park District, which is undergoing staff cutbacks of about 25%.

The consultants recommended that Oak Park try to remain in its recreation district if it seeks annexation to Thousand Oaks.

The consultants said Oak Park could not afford to incorporate if it attempted to run its own parks and recreation program. Nor could the community afford to contract directly with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department for police services.

Instead, the report said, Oak Park should consider subcontracting to Thousand Oaks, which has its own arrangement with the sheriff.

The plan could significantly enhance law enforcement in Oak Park, the report says. “Because of the economies of scale inherent with being part of a larger agency, Oak Park would experience increased support services in the areas of investigation, prevention, drug-abuse . . . programs and traffic law enforcement,” the report said.

But VanderWilden said subcontracting “would not increase your patrol services. Under no scenario would patrol services increase.”

If Oak Park wants to consider incorporation, the consultants said it should ask the Board of Supervisors to undertake an in-depth financial feasibility study of cityhood.

A marriage of Oak Park and Thousand Oaks was first proposed in 1973 by then-County Supervisor John Conlan of Thousand Oaks, who said it made sense to consolidate the multiple agencies that ran schools, recreational and water facilities in the communities.

The study makes no mention of schools, which are an important issue in Oak Park. The community maintains its own school district and probably would resist efforts to combine with another school district, such as the one that includes Thousand Oaks, residents said.