Habitat House Not Yet a Home as Creeping Costs Hamper Planned Project : Thousand Oaks: Christian organization will ask that $10,000 in unexpected fees be waived. But some city officials are opposed.

By all accounts, construction of Thousand Oaks’ first Habitat for Humanity house has been--in the words of city Housing Services Manager Olav E. Hassel--”a difficult birth.”

First, the nonprofit Christian organization, made famous by former President Jimmy Carter’s involvement, ran into strong opposition from the residents who live near the weed-strewn lot at the end of Beall Street, where the group proposed building a three-bedroom home for a low-income family.

With that hurdle cleared, thanks to a successful publicity campaign during a series of public meetings, Habitat officials next turned their attention to raising the $65,000 in cash, goods and services needed to erect the structure.

They secured the services of attorneys, architects, engineers and other house-building professionals for free or at greatly reduced rates. The city’s Redevelopment Agency bought the lot last summer for $60,000 and gave it to the organization.

Now, Habitat officials find themselves facing the same obstacle every other developer in town faces: building fees.

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Tonight, Habitat for Humanity project manager Jennifer Zobelein will once again go before the City Council with her hat in hand. She plans to ask city officials to waive about $10,000 in unexpected fees.

It is a request that some city officials oppose.

“We’ve already assisted this to the tune of $60,000,” Hassel said. He has forwarded his opposition to the waiver in a memo circulated among the four council members.

Mayor Jaime Zukowski said the Ventura County Fire Department has already agreed to drop its demand that Habitat for Humanity pay for a new fire hydrant on the street. Beyond that, Zukowski said she has not decided if the city should waive fees assessed for such things as police protection and filing costs.

“We want to encourage more of these projects,” Zukowski said. “They have achieved a very successful project.”

To that end, Zukowski said, some reduction in the fees may be warranted.

Habitat officials agreed to pick up all development fees when the transfer was made. Hassel points this out in his memo to the City Council.

Despite the snag, Hassel said “there is some potential” to enter into similar agreements with Habitat in the future, though a project has not been identified.

“I thought this was great,” Zobelein said of the land gift. “But then you realize there are many, many city requirements and county requirements and all of this bureaucracy and red tape.”

Habitat officials have already waded through their own red tape, sorting through 30 applications to find a family to move into the home.

The Schrader family, who now live in a city-subsidized apartment complex, were chosen in the summer. Habitat officials will help the family secure a no-interest $65,000 mortgage to pay for the house. And instead of a down payment, the Schraders are required to donate 500 hours of “sweat equity” in building theirs and other Habitat for Humanity homes.

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So far, they have worked off close to half their down payment doing earthquake repair in Simi Valley.

“We’ve done everything from digging foundations to roofing work,” said Debbie Schrader. The 36-year-old is a school crossing guard and mother of three young daughters. She and her husband, a maintenance worker, are becoming antsy waiting for their home. A new completion date has yet to be set.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t start boxing before Christmas,” she said. She attributed many of the delays to being a Habitat for Humanity trailblazer in Thousand Oaks.

“There’s no past paperwork to look at,” she said. “Nobody’s done this before.”