Civic Plaza’s Construction Fuels Dispute : Thousand Oaks: The structure’s skeleton incites attacks. Backers say The Oaks mall also drew initial criticism.

With the imposing steel skeleton of Thousand Oaks’ Jungleland auditorium rising six stories above the Ventura Freeway and forever changing the city’s skyline, the project’s critics zeroed in on two longstanding concerns: aesthetics and economics.

With just a hint of I-told-you-so smugness, they condemned the Civic Arts Plaza’s 101-foot tower as a modernist monstrosity--”a billboard slammed up against the freeway,” complained Michelle Koetke of Newbury Park.

And they renewed charges that the $63.8-million complex, which includes a 1,800-seat auditorium and a new government center, may become a black hole sucking in taxpayer dollars.

“When The Oaks mall was proposed, there was just as much opposition to it as there has been to this project,” Mayor Judy Lazar countered. “I think the residents will look back on the Civic Arts Plaza with pride and satisfaction--I know I will.”

Yet as the complex grows, so does the controversy.

Although the city has pledged not to use tax money to construct or run the arts portion of the plaza, some critics charge that the Thousand Oaks City Council may be poised, however reluctantly, to break that promise.

Council members Jaime Zukowski and Elois Zeanah have called for a new study on how much the facility will cost to run once it opens in the fall of 1994. Warning that the auditorium might initially lose money, they urged the city to resist subsidizing the arts complex with tax dollars.

“The economy has changed, but we must keep our promise to the people,” Zeanah said.

The Civic Arts Plaza’s operating plan calls for the auditorium to be self-supporting--earning revenue by renting its space to visiting performers and by drawing on a multimillion-dollar endowment established by the Thousand Oaks-based Alliance for the Arts. The group has already raised about $1.4 million, and several big donors are mulling final plans, said Stephen Woodworth, chairman of the Alliance’s board of directors.

Yet costs have escalated since the last feasibility study was conducted three years ago. Estimates of an executive director’s salary, for example, have soared from about $55,000 to almost $100,000.

In what Zeanah calls a “double whammy,” the auditorium’s probable revenues have dropped, since interest rates have plummeted and a $3-million endowment would not generate as much money as had been anticipated.

“It’s certainly possible that the city will need to provide financial assistance,” Lazar said. She emphasized, however, that the city still hopes to avoid subsidizing the arts portion of the complex.

Last week’s announcement that the Conejo Parks and Recreation District may not be able to afford moving to the new complex adds yet another wrinkle. The construction budget included $2 million promised from the parks district, the building’s main tenant outside City Hall, to cover costs of building the 10,000 square feet the agency expected to occupy.

Despite these budget headaches, the project’s boosters continue to agree with City Manager Grant Brimhall, who described the Civic Arts Plaza as “a profoundly effective investment of public funds” that will benefit the entire Conejo Valley.

Longtime Councilman Frank Schillo added: “It will be a billboard for the city of Thousand Oaks, and I’m proud of it.”

The city has already pledged to contribute $27 million from the sale of its old City Hall buildings and from the taxpayer-supported General Fund to build government offices within the complex and to help pay for shared amenities, such as the parking garage and a grassy park.

An additional $31.7 million needed to finance the arts facilities will come from the Thousand Oaks Boulevard Redevelopment Agency, which draws its money from property taxes assessed on businesses along the boulevard, said Edward Johnduff, who oversees the plaza project for the city. The remaining $5.1 million is slated to come from tenants, including the parks department.

Paying off the remaining construction bills will all but wipe out the $27.1-million Redevelopment Fund, city Finance Director Robert Biery said.

That angers some local neighbors, who say the money would be better spent revitalizing the five-mile stretch of Thousand Oaks Boulevard that stands in as the city’s downtown area.

“Even if we can afford the project, the city will suffer because it will mean diverting all its funds to this one white elephant,” said Ekbal Kidwai, a longtime critic of the project.

Putting further pressure on the redevelopment money, Gov. Pete Wilson on Friday signaled that he would cut $100 million in redevelopment funds statewide. In a similar move by the state last year, Thousand Oaks lost $1.4 million from its total pot of redevelopment money, which includes the Thousand Oaks Boulevard fund and three others.

Although money for the Civic Arts Plaza, generated primarily through a bond issue, is safe from budget cuts, further slashing could jeopardize the city’s ability to pay dividends on those bonds, Biery said.

Aware of continuing criticism about the Civic Arts Plaza’s visual and financial impact, the Los Angeles architects who designed the complex have issued a plea to residents of Thousand Oaks.

“There is a tendency to view the Civic Arts Plaza as one might view a corporate or retail facility,” said Bob Newsom, project director for architect Antoine Predock and his firm, Dworsky Associates.

“But this is a different kind of building,” he added. “People should be proud of it and let some of its exuberance trickle through.”