$2.4 Million in Federal Money Sought to Build Transportation Center : Thousand Oaks: Officials hope congressmen can help secure funds. Center would be city’s answer to Grand Central Station.

Thousand Oaks is seeking $2.4 million in federal money for a new transportation center, and local officials are hoping Ventura County’s two congressmen can bring home the bacon.

The money would help build the city’s answer to Grand Central Station that would put everything from commuter bus lines and airport shuttles to taxi cabs and Greyhound service under one roof.

Currently, mass transportation services are scattered across the city--with one spot for getting a shuttle to Los Angeles airports and another for reaching the Metrolink train station in Moorpark.

“This is a long-term goal for Thousand Oaks,” Mayor Jaime Zukowski said.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission voted Friday to try to fund the project with an obscure $20-million line item tucked away in the federal transportation budget.

“It’s a pot of discretionary money,” said Carlos Hernandez, the commission’s manager of transportation programming. “It’s actually pork.”

The commission will ask U.S. Reps. Anthony Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) and Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) to pry the money out of the Federal Transit Authority.

The authority’s $20-million pot is tiny when compared to the billions spent each year on transportation projects, and hundreds of other agencies and cities across the country also want a piece of it, Hernandez said.

“But it’s worth a shot,” he said.

Complicating matters is the budget-cutting zeal now gripping Capitol Hill.

“There’s a chance the money might not even be there now,” Hernandez said of the myriad budget-cutting bills being introduced. “It’s something I have to check on.”

The city has already squirreled away $400,000 in federal money received last year and the state has kicked in with another $350,000, Hernandez said.

Another $260,000 in federal money has been obtained for site location and initial design work, Thousand Oaks Public Works Director Donald Nelson said. The City Council is scheduled to discuss hiring a consultant to find a three-acre site or larger parcel to build the center.

Preliminary discussions had called for buying a 2.3-acre plot at Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Oakwood Drive near the Civic Arts Plaza.

“I think the desire to sell has waned,” Nelson said of the plot. But he added that city officials intend to approach the owners again. He also said several other sites throughout the city will be considered.

“It would have to be placed near a center of activity,” Zukowski said, mentioning a spot near The Oaks shopping center.

“But that is something we have to determine,” she said. In the meantime, Zukowski said the city needs to “bring transit up to the level that requires a transit center.”

To that end, the commission voted Friday to apply for a $10,000 grant that would plan a shuttle system busing shoppers between shopping centers and businesses along Thousand Oaks Boulevard.