City to Get Revised Housing Plan : Newbury Park: Thousand Oaks will review developer’s request to remove oak trees from the tract, which includes wetland habitat.

After months of painstaking blueprint revisions, developers Tuesday will present their latest plan for 91 single-family houses on a vacant Newbury Park tract that contains substantial wetland habitat.

The Thousand Oaks City Council will consider developer Raznick & Sons Inc.’s request to remove 35 oak trees and build its multimillion-dollar project just west of Lynn and Reino roads, at the end of Knollwood Drive.

Although the Planning Commission approved the project in May, hundreds of residents have protested with letters, petitions and angry speeches before the council.

Convinced the development would destroy their peaceful neighborhood, they have complained about density, heavy truck traffic during construction and possible encroachment on sensitive wetlands.

But during the five months since the Planning Commission hearing, Raznick architects have redesigned the project, dubbed Creekside, in a continuing effort to appease the naysayers.

To help Creekside blend with the surrounding neighborhood, Raznick has dramatically increased the average lot size, to 6,800 square feet. The number of residences, which would be priced from $250,000 to $350,000, has also been reduced.

Finally, the developer plans to preserve 17 acres, including a crucial wildlife corridor. Although a road eventually would cross the wetland area, most of the riparian habitat would be untouched.

“I don’t know what else I can do to make people happy aside from not building at all on the site,” said Ellen Michiel, an assistant vice president at Raznick & Sons in Woodland Hills.

Since 1990, Michiel has overseen six overhauls of the Creekside design. She believes the latest tract maps will satisfy city standards, wetland preservation mandates--and, possibly, the neighbors.

Yet persuading the residents will be a hard sell.

“As always, we have concerns about more traffic, more noise, more air pollution and more overcrowding in our schools,” said Ricki Mikkelsen, who has led a long neighborhood fight against the development.

Foes of the project this week disclosed new concerns on the geological stability of the 44-acre parcel, which is wedged between two undeveloped tracts designated as permanent open space. Raznick’s Michiel dismissed those fears as unfounded, but her opponents plan to present evidence of shaky soil structure during Tuesday’s public hearing.

Other testimony will focus on potential storm damage to future housing, as Raznick is still negotiating with the Ventura County Flood Control District about an appropriate water retention basin.

But beyond the safety issues, some residents say they simply do not want more construction in Newbury Park.

The hotly debated Dos Vientos project will add as many as 2,350 residences to the neighborhood, and several smaller housing developments have been approved in recent years. Sensing a threat to the semirural atmosphere they cherish, dozens of Newbury Park residents have stormed into recent City Council meetings to protest the lawmakers’ policies.

“We love this area,” resident Christine Boyle said, “and we’d like to see it kept as pristine and beautiful as we think it is now.”