Council Sets Aside $400,000 in Block Grants for Transportation Center : Thousand Oaks: Facility would provide a link to shuttles, taxis and city and interstate buses. A parcel next to the Civic Arts Plaza is a possible site.

Longstanding plans for a Thousand Oaks transportation center linking airport shuttles, city transit and interstate buses received a boost this week when the City Council set aside $400,000 for the project.

City leaders envision the hub as a staging ground for a variety of modes of public transportation, from local taxis to Greyhound Bus service.

Residents could hop aboard buses headed for Downtown Los Angeles or the Moorpark Metrolink station. They could stash luggage in lockers, hail idling taxis or buy monthly transit passes. And instead of waiting at deserted street corners, they could huddle in a heated, well-lit shelter.

The transportation hub would not replace bus stops now scattered throughout Thousand Oaks. Instead, it would provide a central transfer spot and would serve as the loading dock for shuttles such as the Great American Stage Line and Ventura County Interconnect.

“Right now if you come into town on the Great American Stage Line, you don’t know where you’re going to end up,” said Judy Golubics, a member of the city’s Traffic and Transportation Commission. A hub with restrooms, phones and a cafeteria would “make it all more convenient,” she added.

By setting aside $400,000 in federal community development block-grant money for the project, Thousand Oaks City Council members did not commit to any particular site or design. The money, along with $200,000 allocated last year, will be reserved in a special fund to buy land once the council settles on a site.

City officials have already identified a parcel next to the Civic Arts Plaza as a possible site for the transportation center. With council permission, city officials are negotiating to buy the 2.3-acre plot at the southwest corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Oakwood Drive.

The boulevard site has generated some controversy among council members and the public because of concerns that a transportation center would create traffic and parking problems along the city’s central corridor.

Before purchasing any property for a transportation center, staff members would analyze all environmental and traffic impacts, City Manager Grant Brimhall said.

While withholding judgment until those studies are complete, Councilwoman Judy Lazar said she believes a boulevard site would be ideal because “that’s where a large number of our low-income residents live, and that’s our business district.”

As a model, some Thousand Oaks officials have considered the large transportation center in Oxnard, which has served Amtrak, Greyhound and local buses since 1986. Built with redevelopment money, the complex has proved a great success, said Maureen Hooper Lopez, the director of planning for the South Coast Area Transit bus system.

“People making connections aren’t trying to cross busy streets or run against red lights,” she said. “Drivers used to have to radio each other to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a transfer here, so don’t pull out yet.’ Now they can see the connection buses coming.”

Planning for a Thousand Oaks center has been so preliminary that officials do not have cost estimates. But council members are setting aside money now, hoping to get the project under way soon.

Full city coffers would be helpful in securing federal money to help build the hub, Councilman Frank Schillo said, because many grant programs require cities to put up matching funds.

Still, Mayor Elois Zeanah questioned the council majority’s decision to set aside $400,000 in the block grant funds--earmarked to help low-income residents--for the transportation center.

Zeanah also expressed concern about another block-grant allocation: spending $150,000 to improve wheelchair accessibility along Thousand Oaks Boulevard. Installing curb cuts and new sidewalks should be taken care of by redevelopment agency money, she said, and not by community development funds.

While Zeanah cast the lone vote against the capital projects, she approved allocating $112,500 in block-grant funding to 14 nonprofit groups.

The council unanimously agreed to give $10,000 apiece to senior nutrition and meals programs and to the Mannafood bank. Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities each received $10,500 grants.

Five other groups, including the Youth Employment Service and the Interface counseling programs, split an additional $50,000 in grant money from the city’s Social Services Endowment Fund.