Adventist Development Violates City General Plan Standards : Thousand Oaks: Church proposal for mall and school calls for filling canyons, slicing ridges and building on steep hillsides.

Blueprints for a new shopping mall and school campus on the hilly Seventh-day Adventist property in Newbury Park violate half a dozen development standards outlined in Thousand Oaks’ General Plan.

The church’s proposed project, which comes before the Planning Commission on Monday, requires massive grading that would seriously alter the topography of a sweeping site north of the Rancho Conejo Industrial Park, according to a city report released this week.

To develop the rugged terrain, engineers would have to fill canyons, slice ridges and build on steep hillsides. The huge earth-moving project would also destroy 68 acres of sage scrub and grassland, and intrude into 74 acres of wildlife habitat.

“The project is so large that it will have a major effect on the way this city develops,” Planning Commissioner Irving Wasserman said.

Construction would affect 179 acres of the church’s 458-acre Wendy Drive property and would cost about $100 million.

As proposed, the Adventist Church’s project is inconsistent with city policies on ridgeline preservation and hillside construction, senior planner Larry Marquart wrote in a 17-page report to the Planning Commission.

The development would also break a longstanding city policy of drawing shoppers to two main commercial hubs: one at The Oaks mall and another in the Westlake neighborhood. With its Target store and 12-screen movie theater, the Adventist project would create a third retail center with regional draw.

If approved, Marquart wrote, the Adventist project “would involve major policy changes.”

Adventist representatives, who have worked on their project for more than a decade, contend that every major policy change enacted for their development will help Thousand Oaks residents in the long run.

“When you look at the benefits our project will have overall and balance them against the so-called (negative) impacts, it comes out overwhelmingly positive for the community,” architect Francisco Behr said.

As part of the development, the Adventist Church will sponsor $50 million worth of public-works improvements in Newbury Park. Their biggest project: reconfiguring the Wendy Drive interchange with the Ventura Freeway to speed traffic flow.

To make up for the destruction of grassland, the developer plans to build miles of new trails and dedicate 258 acres of canyon country to the Conejo Open Space Conservation Authority. The church would also hire biologists to transplant the most sensitive plants, like the endangered Blochman’s dudleya, away from construction sites.

The extensive grading, Behr said, will actually improve the property’s aesthetics by blending the new development into the existing hills. “We’re very confident in this project,” Behr said. “We know it’s a good project.”

The complicated project calls for a one-story mall, with 70% as much retail space as The Oaks.

The shopping mall would displace an eclectic collection of church buildings, including a faded school, senior citizen bungalows and a rambling equestrian center. Those facilities would be moved to the northern portion of the church’s property on a hilly campus flecked with oak trees.

*

Much of that northern campus is now designated as “undevelopable,” or zoned for low-density housing. The Adventist Church has asked the City Council to rezone the land to permit more intense development. After the Planning Commission issues its recommendations, the council will consider the project.

Because the Adventist proposal is so complex, two planning commissioners said they doubt they will finish deliberations in one evening. They are scheduled to start debate Monday at 7:30 and continue in special sessions on Dec. 8 and Dec. 15, if necessary.

The vote, when it finally comes, will be the last taken by the current group of planning commissioners. The terms of four out of the five commissioners expire this month.

Councilman-elect Andy Fox will select a new commissioner, and Councilwomen Judy Lazar and Elois Zeanah can either nominate new candidates or reappoint current commissioners. The fourth commissioner will be appointed by the person who takes the seat of departing Councilman Frank Schillo.

Although the new commissioners would presumably better represent the incoming council, Planning Commissioner Linda Parks said she believes the current group should vote on the Adventist project.

“There is so much technical information,” she said. “It would be very hard for inexperienced commissioners (to follow). We would have to start way back at ground zero to explain everything.”

Times correspondent Matthew Mosk contributed to this story.