Hardware Store May Bring Jobs and Headaches : Development: The Orchard chain wants to build a major facility in Thousand Oaks. But some worry about traffic and noise.

A major home supply store may move to Thousand Oaks, bringing with it jobs and, some neighbors worry, more traffic and noise.

Orchard Supply Hardware, a San Jose-based chain with 58 stores across the state, wants to build a 59,000-square-foot facility at the Oakbrook Plaza Shopping Center, at Erbes Road and Avenida de Los Arboles. City planning commissioners will consider the company’s proposal on Monday.

The store, which includes a nursery and a materials storage yard, would be the largest structure at the plaza, city planners said. Orchard officials said the new store would bring between 70 and 120 jobs to the area.

For Orchard, the move means a chance to sell to residents it considers prime potential customers, said Maynard Jenkins, the company’s president and chief financial officer.

“We believe [Thousand Oaks] people have pride in the community and in keeping their homes and property up, and that fits our bill,” he said.

The chain, which one company official described as “the Nordstrom’s of home repair,” specializes in home supplies and service, Jenkins said. Orchard stores avoid the self-serve warehouse atmosphere of other home improvement centers, he said.

Salespeople guide customers through the stores’ hardware, housewares and garden supplies.

That approach has helped Orchard grow during the past 64 years from a cooperative for prune farmers in the Santa Clara Valley to a statewide business with stores in Van Nuys and Burbank.

The proposed Thousand Oaks store would occupy five acres at the shopping center. Some neighborhood residents welcome the development, saying the jobs would be a boon to the community and the store a welcome addition.

“I’m enthusiastic about it,” said Frances Pershing of nearby Shady Brook Drive. “I think we could use a company like that.”

Pershing said she was pleased to see a store occupy the site, which she said is now just a weed patch. “I think it would be an improvement,” she said.

George Hees, an 18-year neighborhood resident, said a hardware store at the shopping center probably would attract a lot of customers, but the store’s success could prove a problem for neighbors.

“That’ll make a lot more noise, a lot more trash and a lot more traffic,” Hees said.

City planners raised similar concerns while evaluating Orchard’s application. They worried that the proposed store’s proximity to nearby homes could cause the similar noise complaints as the Home Depot store in Newbury Park.

Company representatives responded that since their stores do not take deliveries or restock after closing, the noise from loading and unloading merchandise would be confined to business hours.

The company also commissioned a noise study of its South Pasadena store and found it met Thousand Oaks’ noise requirements.

To address traffic concerns, planners have recommended requiring the developer to pay for improvements to plaza driveways and nearby traffic lights.