Amgen Would Need Waiver for Buildings, Study Shows : Development: The biotech company’s expansion plan would also affect traffic, but all major impacts could be mitigated, report says.

Amgen Inc.’s plans to double the company’s 1-million-square-foot biotech headquarters in Thousand Oaks would require a waiver of the city’s building height limit and involve moving more than 1 million cubic yards of dirt, a new report shows.

The expansion, which would also generate significant levels of traffic, would enable the firm to double its 2,000-employee work force. The hugely successful biotechnology company, founded in Thousand Oaks in 1980, occupies a 100-acre site with 21 buildings along Hillcrest Drive at the city’s west end.

The report, released last week, primarily focuses on Amgen’s five-year development plan, but also includes information on construction projects expected to occur through the year 2010.

The purpose of the two-inch-thick report is to give city officials details of the environmental consequences of the company’s development plans and to suggest steps that can be taken to reduce or avoid impacts. The report by Fugro-McClelland of Ventura found that all major impacts on traffic and other areas could be mitigated to insignificant levels.

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Amgen’s plans call for adding five buildings by 1998, including some buildings from 55 to 75 feet tall, exceeding the city’s 35-foot height limit, the report said.

The larger structures would be clustered in the center of Amgen’s complex, just east of Camino Dos Rios and Pauling Drive, according to the report. This would reduce the visual impact to insignificant levels, it said.

Without a height waiver, Amgen would be forced to construct additional office and lab buildings on its campus, reducing surrounding open space, said Ed Bjurstrom, Amgen’s construction manager.

He said having taller structures would allow certain departments, labs and offices to be confined to one building.

“If you have people spread out all over the place, that’s not really efficient,” he said. “This way, instead of walking from one building to another, they can just take the elevator.”

Echoing the report’s findings, Bjurstrom said that with the appropriate setbacks, the taller buildings would barely be noticeable.

“We’ve made every effort to work with the city on the placement of those buildings,” he said. “And we’ve been very careful and sensitive” to ensure that the buildings are designed to fit in with the surrounding neighborhood.

Councilman Frank Schillo said he thinks that the plan can work. But he said he wants more information on what the actual view of the buildings would be from such areas as the Ventura Freeway interchanges with Borchard and Ventu Park roads.

“Height is always a problem,” Schillo said. “But if it’s handled well, and it’s hidden, so to speak, then I think it’s got a chance” of approval.

The environmental report found that Amgen’s development plans would greatly increase traffic at several intersections, including Hillcrest Drive and Rancho Conejo Boulevard. Significant traffic increases would also result at nearby on- and off-ramps of the Ventura Freeway.

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To reduce traffic, the report suggested minor widening and restriping of streets and intersections. It also recommended that new traffic signals be installed in some areas and that others be resynchronized to better handle increased traffic loads.

Schillo said he did not expect any major traffic problems. “I think the streets are big enough to handle the traffic,” he said.

Amgen’s development plans would also involve moving more than 1 million cubic yards of dirt off-site, which could create significant erosion impacts, the report said.

The consultant recommended that special grading techniques be used to reduce or eliminate possible erosion. It was also recommended that steps be taken to keep the soil wet during high wind conditions to help control dust.

Bjurstrom said Amgen officials are still reviewing the report’s findings and are putting together a formal response for city officials.

The report will be the subject of a Nov. 23 joint study session of the Planning Commission and City Council at City Hall. Both documents will be available for public review at the city library through the end of the year. Public hearings on Amgen’s development plans are expected to start in early January.

Since 1980, Amgen has become the largest independent biotechnology company in the world, with sales totaling $1.1 billion in 1992.

Amgen has developed and marketed two successful drugs. The first was Epogen, which fights chronic anemia in patients with kidney diseases. The second, Neupogen, spurs production of white blood cells that help cancer patients fight infections.