CONEJO VALLEY : Council Approves 220-House Project

Bucking dire warnings from local, state and federal environmentalists, a majority of Thousand Oaks City Council members early Wednesday approved a 220-house project that will partially block a major wildlife corridor in the western Santa Monica Mountains.

The luxury houses, to be built in a gated community north of Potrero Road on Dos Vientos Ranch, will limit animals roaming through the backcountry to a steep, rocky grade instead of a meadow.

Before approving the project, the council had to vote on a “statement of overriding considerations” indicating for the record that they understood the “unavoidable adverse” effects on wildlife but deemed the project worthwhile and beneficial nonetheless.

That decision, on a 3-2 vote, brought sharp criticism from a parade of two dozen speakers.

“The National Park Service is convinced that the magnitude of environmental and ecological destruction is not justified,” ranger Tony Gross said.

The construction will cut into only one-third of the 3-mile-wide swath recognized as a wildlife movement corridor. But experts said the affected mile represents the most convenient path for many animals wandering through Dos Vientos to the chaparral-cloaked wilderness beyond.

“One of the basic tenets of the National Park Service is preservation of the values and ambience (of the Santa Monica Mountains),” Gross said. “The Dos Vientos project, as proposed, is not compatible with those values.”

Most of the 110 people attending the four-hour hearing, which ended early Wednesday morning, saw the project’s importance primarily in negative terms. They urged the council to consider canceling the contract guaranteeing the developers an additional 2,130 houses on the Dos Vientos Ranch in later phases of the project, in light of new information about environmental impacts.

Humans as well as animals could suffer when the project is built, as the new homes will increase air pollution, noise and traffic, according to a city-approved environmental impact report.

But developers Operating Engineers and another Dos Vientos developer, Courtly Homes, said the project will benefit the city and pointed out that they have preserved 1,000 acres of the most sensitive land as open space and made other concessions to environmentalists.

The developers will pay the city a total of $12.6 million for the right to build up to 2,350 houses on the ranch, under a contract negotiated with the council four years ago. Both developers will also pay substantial fees for parks, schools, road work and air quality control.