Planners Expected to OK Newbury Park Housing : Development: Despite density concerns, they may have little say due to earlier agreement with developer.

A 95-house development planned for a gated community in Newbury Park will probably be approved Monday by the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission despite concerns over the density of the project, officials said.

The housing plan is part of a 1989 development agreement between the city and Beverly Hills-based developer Shapell Industries that allows the firm to build 800 residences at a rate of up to 150 per year.

As a result of that agreement, some planning commissioners said Friday the panel has little choice but to approve the project.

“The way things have been arranged, we’re not going to be able to look at it in terms of whether it’s good planning or not good planning,” Commissioner Linda Parks said. “Our hands are tied, so we can only hope they will appreciate any concerns that we may raise.”

The 18-acre development, which will be built within a gated community on the south side of Lawrence Drive near Rancho Conejo Boulevard, will include three-, four- and five-bedroom houses.

Shapell is building the housing on a site initially set aside for an apartment complex. In April, the Planning Commission agreed to allow Shapell to move the apartments into an industrial area due to the complaints of nearby residents.

This housing development is expected to resemble the one already built within the gated community--a prospect that disturbs some Newbury Park residents who consider the existing neighborhood too dense.

“I keep looking over there expecting to see clotheslines from building to building,” said Michelle Koetke spokesperson for Residents to Preserve Newbury Park, a grass-roots group that monitors development in the city.

“Those are like tenements. It’s way too dense,” she said.

Koetke said she is one of many Newbury Park residents who believes high density developments such as the one proposed will lead to higher crime and other problems common to more urban areas.

But Planning Commissioner Mervyn Koppsaid Shapell’s proposal is in keeping with the existing development.

“Density is in the eye of the beholder,” Kopp said. “Ask me how dense is too dense and I don’t have an answer.”

Koetke said the density is made worse because some of the housing will be two stories.

As part of the development agreement, Shapell is allowed to make 80% of the housing two stories instead of the 60% normally allotted.

“I think it’s a frightening trend for the city,” Koetke said. “These huge developments have managed to get wavers to do things that no one else can do.”

In exchange for permission to build the project on the former MGM Ranch site, Shapell agreed in 1989 to give the city $8.5 million and more than 1,300 acres.

In addition to the density issue, the proposed project deviates from city norms in some areas.

Shapell will ask the city to grant it more paved area and higher manufactured slopes than normally allowed for a project of this size.

“These are things that the city usually frowns on,” Planning Commission Chairman Irving Wasserman said. “Those are items that will have to be addressed at the meeting.”

A Shapell representative could not be reached for comment.

The public hearing on the development is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday at Thousand Oaks City Hall.