Residents Offer Suggestions for Arts Plaza Project : Thousand Oaks: Advisory panel calls for businesses that are unique to the area.

A miniature golf course, a children’s museum and a jazz night club were among the uses suggested by Thousand Oaks’ residents for a portion of the city’s Civic Arts Plaza, now under construction on Thousand Oaks Boulevard near Conejo School Road.

More than 100 residents met for two months to develop recommendations on the types of businesses they would like to see developed on 11 acres set aside for private use at the eastern end of the complex.

Last week, the advisory committee, which had split into 15 different groups that held their own brainstorming sessions, listed its recommendations and forwarded them to the City Council. Specialty shops, restaurants, office space, an art museum and a movie theater topped the list.

Committee members insisted that the businesses be unique to the area, to avoid competition with other established merchants. For example, they said they would like to see a movie theater that showed foreign films, or perhaps an IMAX theater, which features science and nature films on screens seven stories high.

Committee members said they would also like to see a restaurant similar in style and taste to New York’s tony Tavern on the Green.

“We were especially interested in having a place that would draw people” to the Civic Arts Plaza, said Raymond Olson. “We wanted a place that would give a sense of community.”

William Lucas, another committee member, said his group wants to see some upscale “Beverly Hills-type stores” developed.

“We don’t want to see a Target or a Mervyn’s go in there,” he said.

But other committee members said they were disappointed in the recommendations.

Donna Bigelow said her subgroup of the committee, which consisted of eight people, preferred to see an Olympic sports and cultural center built on the site.

“We wanted something special,” she said. “Not just another boutique. We wanted something that would have brought international recognition to the city, and we think this was it.”

Bigelow said she felt that the center could be built by private developers, who could use the sports center to operate exercise classes using its training equipment.

She said specialty stores and expensive restaurants would be much more difficult to attract because of the economy.

“I’m disappointed,” she said. “Our group really wanted something new and unique. I guess we were out of step with the rest.”

Mayor Judy Lazar said that the advisory committee’s recommendations will be used by the city to put together a specific plan to give developers an idea of what residents want to see built on the site. The economy and business climate will ultimately determine what will be developed, Lazar said.

The City Council will discuss the committee’s recommendations at its meeting tonight at City Hall. However, the council is not expected to make any final decisions on a specific plan for the property until later this summer.