Council Set to Vote on New Plan to Build Flood Dam

After two months of debate about a flood-control project that will rip as many as 98 oak trees from a century-old grove in North Ranch, the Thousand Oaks City Council is set to vote Tuesday on the proposal.

Plans for the giant earthen dam along Westlake Boulevard were supposed to be approved in January, but a last-minute check revealed that a smaller basin will satisfy the area’s flood-control needs.

The initial proposal would have forced Lang Ranch developers to remove 140 oak trees. Final plans for the newly designed basin will reduce the number of lost oaks to no more than 98 and perhaps to as few as 59.

Council members said they expected to support the new version of the dam despite the cost to the picturesque oak grove, which some residents have called the city’s most precious environmental treasure.

“Nobody wants to take out 59 oak trees, but we have to balance that harm against the potential safety hazard that would result if we failed to act on this,” Councilwoman Judy Lazar said.

She said it was heartening that flood-control officials were “willing to look again and find an alternative that was more environmentally sensitive.”

The city is bound to approve the flood-control project in some form because of a 1986 federal court judgment settling a lawsuit brought by Lang Ranch developers. Construction of the company’s 2,257-unit development is contingent upon having a basin to catch runoff from the hills, the ruling says.

During last month’s torrential rains, several residents eyed the area for flood waters, trying to determine why a giant 32-acre-foot basin would be necessary. That size would hold almost 1.4 million cubic feet.

Their experiment was unnecessary, according to Planning Commissioner Forrest Frields, because several temporary basins are already in place on the construction site of the Lang Ranch project.

“This proposal is for a permanent basin to replace the temporary holding areas that were constructed on areas where homes will be built in the future,” Frields explained.

Either way, some council members said they still need proof that the basin will not result in unforeseen harm.

“At this point, I just don’t think we’ve done enough in the way of a supplemental environmental review,” Mayor Jaime Zukowski said. “I would like to see us take our time and make sure what we’re doing is thoroughly reviewed.”

Meanwhile, Planning Commissioner Marilyn Carpenter said she would like the commission to take a second look at the project because so much has changed since the planners first approved it in December.

“We are equipped to evaluate projects like this, and it would certainly be nice to have a chance to look at it before the council makes a final decision,” Carpenter said. “My feeling is that the more public input into this, the better off we are.”

But Lazar said the city attorney has concluded that the existing environmental document, which took years to complete and is several inches thick, is enough to cover the new proposal.

“I think it’s clear that the harms from this new proposal are less severe than the initial plan,” she said, noting that the environmental study already prepared “deals with a much-worse-case scenario.”

Lang Ranch and Ventura County Flood Control District officials could not be reached for comment.

The public hearing on the proposed debris basin is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.