Council OKs Plans Amid Warnings Over Wildlife Impact : Thousand Oaks: The 220-house development would restrict animals roaming in Santa Monica Mountains.

Bucking dire warnings from local, state and federal environmentalists, a majority of Thousand Oaks 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, council members 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 1 a.m. decision, on a 3-2 vote, with Councilwomen Elois Zeanah and Jaime Zukowski dissenting, 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 three-mile-wide swath recognized as a wildlife movement corridor. But experts said the doomed 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.”

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

And the problems could get worse in the next few decades as several other big commercial and residential projects are planned for Newbury Park--including an additional 2,130 houses on Dos Vientos Ranch in later phases of the project.

Two dozen Newbury Park residents wearing “Rethink Dos Vientos” buttons told the council that their community would lose its rustic tranquillity and degenerate into an overbuilt, problem-plagued suburb.

But developers Operating Engineers offered another forecast during a spirited, four-hour hearing that began Tuesday evening and stretched to 1 a.m. Wednesday.

The developer’s representative, Bob Levenstein, outlined half a dozen benefits that his project would bring to the Newbury Park neighborhood:

* Operating Engineers and another Dos Vientos developer, Courtly Homes, will pay the city a combined 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, roadwork and air quality control.

* Operating Engineers will preserve 1,000 acres of the most sensitive land as open space and fully maintain it forever. The acreage includes most of the ridgeline but not the wildlife corridor.

* Operating Engineers will build and maintain miles of trails, plus 40 acres of parks and playing fields.

* The developers will also provide sites for day care and a new school, and will build an equestrian center to replace the Two Winds stables slated for demolition.

Noting that developers have spent more than six years devising plans for Dos Vientos Ranch, Levenstein added: “It’s an extraordinarily important addition to the city of Thousand Oaks.”

Most of the 110 residents who packed City Hall on Tuesday night, however, saw the project’s importance primarily in negative terms. They urged the council to consider canceling the contract guaranteeing the developers 2,350 houses on Dos Vientos in light of new information about environmental impacts.

Yet the council majority stood by the development agreement, agreeing with Mayor Alex Fiore that “a deal’s a deal.” Breaking the contract, Fiore said, would invite multimillion-dollar lawsuits from the developers.

Councilman Frank Schillo and Councilwoman Judy Lazar agreed.

Trying to appease irate residents, Schillo suggested forming a citizens committee to monitor the developer’s compliance with more than 260 conditions tacked on to the project’s approval. As watchdogs, the citizens would also oversee the developer’s efforts to minimize any ill effects from the project.

A second citizens group would advise the city on how to spend the $12.6 million in development fees paid by Courtly Homes and Operating Engineers.

Schillo also asked the developers to consider preserving part of the threatened wildlife corridor by shifting some houses to a parcel now reserved for a stable.

Equestrians have rejected that site as too small, so if developers can find a new location for the corral, they could use the plot for houses.

“We would have objections to working with city staff to redesign the project,” Levenstein said. But he added that he liked Schillo’s proposal “as a matter of principle” and said he would “look at it very carefully.”