Ballot Vote on Adventist Project Urged : Newbury Park: Before the shopping center plan could proceed, city’s open space restrictions would have to be loosened.

Concerned that approval of a $100-million shopping center would undermine city open-space policies, Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said Friday that she wants the Seventh-day Adventist project to be placed on the June ballot.

“Let’s put this to the people,” Zeanah said, referring to policy shifts that would be required to allow the giant Newbury Park project. “I don’t want to see the council go over the heads of the residents when this decision could go against everything the residents have asked us to do.”

Zeanah said she will ask the City Council to put the initiative on the spring ballot because she believes the project could seriously erode regulations that have preserved much of the city in its natural state.

For the project to be approved, open space restrictions would have to be loosened even though a 1994 residents’ survey lists saving open space as a top priority, she said.

Seventh-day Adventist representatives said a ballot initiative would be expensive, time-consuming and unnecessary considering the scant opposition to the project.

Also, forcing the 179-acre Wendy Drive project to face a lengthy initiative campaign could scare away interested retailers, said Chuck Cohen, the attorney representing the church.

“It would make the city totally non-competitive with every other neighboring city,” Cohen said. “It’s, frankly, a terrible idea.”

In addition to Zeanah, Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski said she would probably favor the measure, which would have to be supported by three of the four council members to make the ballot.

Councilwoman Judy Lazar could not be reached for comment.

But newly elected Councilman Andy Fox said he opposes an election because he believes General Plan decisions are the council’s responsibility.

“You can’t start putting every project that’s controversial on the ballot,” Fox said. “The public just doesn’t have enough information in front of them to make the decision. That’s why they elect council members in the first place.”

Still, Zeanah said the ballot proposal stems from her fear that approval could unravel the city’s efforts to sustain a semirural atmosphere.

“The open space policy will be a thing of the past,” Zeanah said. “They want to cut up land preserved for the public, and that’s not something I want to encourage.”

The project would destroy 74 acres of wildlife habitat with a school campus and would also bring a Target store, 12-screen movie theater and two restaurants to Newbury Park just north of the Ventura Freeway. It would require cutting into hillsides and grading on steep slopes--activities generally prohibited by the city.

But project supporters say the grading will help the project blend into the hillside and enable the church to preserve 279 of its 458 acres.

Zeanah said she decided to call for an initiative after watching Thursday night’s Planning Commission meeting, where the project was debated for five hours.

At that meeting, commissioners approved the development’s environmental report on a 3-2 vote. They delayed a vote on the full project until the commission reconvenes Jan. 9.

Zeanah’s announcement Friday was one of several potential setbacks facing Seventh-day Adventist developers.

The City Council’s decision this week to hold a special election to fill the vacant fifth council seat also could work to paralyze the project, church representatives said.

“You can’t be certain how the council members are going to vote, but based on experience there is a concern that with a four-person council we wouldn’t get the requisite three votes,” Cohen said.

Both Zeanah and Zukowski have indicated that they oppose the project.

As with a ballot initiative, the church could suffer long delays if it chooses to wait for a full council.

Cohen said such a delay would last at least until July if the developer intends to avoid a 2-2 vote.

The delay could mean the loss of the Target store, which developers count on to anchor the project, Cohen said.

“The significant delays could certainly hurt us,” Cohen said. “It puts us at a competitive disadvantage with other cities that are vying for the same major retailers.”

Those cities include Camarillo, Westlake Village and Calabasas, he said.