Public Asked to Help Map the Future of a Boulevard : Thousand Oaks: Aerial overview of the historic main street will be on display at a workshop. Residents will offer comments on its design.

The idea is to gather residents of Thousand Oaks under a tent in front of the Civic Arts Plaza, point them to a gigantic map of the city’s main thoroughfare and ask them what they want changed.

Using aerial photographs of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and a map so long it will cover 10 tables set end to end, the boulevard’s redesign committee is inviting residents to make comments about problem intersections, the need for sidewalks and the kind of stores they would like to see.

The committee of architects and civic activists will also present some of its own ideas developed over the past two years.

“I don’t know what it is people will want,” committee member Mario Diaz said. “For all I know, we may come back with hitching posts. We may come back with State Street, or Old Town Pasadena or the Santa Monica Mall.

“Come down, spend an hour” at the March 26 workshop, he said. “Just give us your opinion, that’s all.”

But some merchants who have already spent two or more decades on Thousand Oaks Boulevard greeted the idea of changing the city’s oldest street with suspicion.

“It’s a dreamer’s dream,” said Dennis Carlson, whose family has owned a building materials store on the street since 1947. “It’s a group of architects that got together and they are offering their assistance to redesign the boulevard. But nobody asked them.”

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From his modest wooden store, painted yellow and brown, Carlson has watched several attempts to spruce up the boulevard.

“In the ‘50s the plan was to make it look like Scottsdale, Ariz., so there was this western thing,” Carlson said. “Then they get the bright idea they wanted to go modern in the ‘60s. In the ‘70s it was back to our heritage with those Mexican tile roofs and those ridiculous arches we’ve got all over the place.”

The city began its latest efforts to revitalize the boulevard in the early 1990s, and the redesign committee became a sounding board for ideas.

But some business owners said the city and the Chamber of Commerce are pushing for change along the thoroughfare to match the $64-million splendor of the Civic Arts Plaza.

“All I know is, now that the Civic Arts Plaza is on the boulevard it seems that somebody, somewhere wants to see some change along the boulevard,” said Don Zender, who runs a patio furniture and fireplace store at the corner of Rancho Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

“Now because we have an 1,800-seat theater they want to make this town a tourist attraction,” Carlson said. “Do you redesign the whole town because of one business? What’s the rush?”

Committee member Diaz said he expects some opposition.

“People do not understand the process,” he said. “They think that it is cast in stone, but it’s not. Now the city can look at this with the community and throw out what they don’t like. It’s all open.”

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Zender said he plans to attend the workshop, despite his reservations.

“I think it’s good to get opinions from the merchants and residents and the architects and the people in City Hall,” he said. “Maybe we will all end up with the same opinion.”

In April, a volunteer group of professional architects, urban planners, traffic engineers and economists will hold a three-day meeting with business owners and residents to review ideas from the workshop.

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FYI

The public can review proposals and add suggestions for the redesign of Thousand Oaks Boulevard at a community workshop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 26 in the parking lot of the Civic Arts Plaza.