Apartments in Industrial Area OKd by Planners

Saying commercial truck noise and traffic should not bother future residents, Thousand Oaks planning commissioners have agreed to allow a 246-unit apartment complex to be built in an industrial section of Newbury Park.

The Planning Commission debated the matter for five hours Monday night before granting Shapell Industries permission to build the apartment complex directly across from the old Northrop Corp. plant on Rancho Conejo Boulevard. The vote was 4 to 1.

Initially, Shapell proposed to build the apartments inside the gated community of Rancho Conejo Village. But the developer changed the location after homeowners complained about sharing their gated community with renters.

Commissioner Linda Parks cast the lone vote against the complex, saying she was concerned that noise from trucks using the nearby United Parcel Service compound on Rancho Conejo Boulevard would disturb residents. She pushed hard to postpone a decision so that staff could conduct a three-week study of noise levels.

But other commissioners rejected the idea of a study as a needless expense, saying that Shapell had already produced satisfactory evidence that the level of noise would be minimal. The UPS facility is the only operating business in the neighborhood, and it ceases to create noise after 6 p.m., they said.

“We can’t go measure the noise because there isn’t any noise out there,” Commissioner Forrest Frields said.

Parks urged the commission to also consider the prospect of increasing noise levels as more industrial users move into the area. “There is no doubt in my mind that at 4 o’clock in the morning these people are going to be waking up to the sound of 18-wheelers downshifting,” she said.

Other commission members said they believed the issue had been resolved by Shapell’s willingness to install sound barriers in the complex, including double-glazed windows, insulation and double-thick walls, and solid-core doors in the apartments that front Rancho Conejo Boulevard.

In addition, they said Shapell’s promise of surrounding the complex with oak tree plantings and masonry walls should diminish any future noise problems. “This area really is more of a transitional zone than an industrial zone,” Commissioner Mervyn Kopp said.

City Planner Robert Rickards said it appears development on the 14-acre parcel will go forward, although he cautioned that opponents have 20 days to appeal the decision to the City Council.