Residents Turn Out to Praise Developer, Back Shopping Center

Neighbors of a proposed shopping center at the corner of Westlake and Thousand Oaks boulevards filled a meeting of the city’s Planning Commission Monday to support the project, one already praised by several commissioners.

Residents commended developer Rick Caruso for seeking their feedback while designing the 209,780-square-foot center, which would include restaurants, a grocery store and an eight-screen movie theater. Commissioners have praised the project for carefully following the city’s design standards.

“I’m just really happy to be working with an applicant who’s so willing to listen and make changes,” Commissioner Linda Parks said. “That’s obviously why he has the support of homeowners. That’s the kind of applicant we like.”

Although commissioners were still discussing the project late Monday night, several had said before the meeting that they were inclined to approve it. If approved, the project would be sent to the City Council for a final vote.

At the intersection’s southeast corner, the center would feature a series of six buildings surrounding a parking lot. With room for 20 to 30 tenants, the center would include an eight-screen Mann theater, a Bristol Farms market, a Staples office-supply store and a Barnes & Noble bookstore.

The project’s features and Mediterranean-style design were developed over months of consultation with city planners and homeowners’ groups. Caruso contacted the homeowners first to win their support before submitting plans to the city.

“The way to do it was to create a partnership with the community,” Caruso told planning commissioners Monday night. “They were very specific. They knew what they wanted to see in terms of design and tenants.”

That open, flexible approach impressed Polly L. Derr, secretary of the Westlake North board of directors.

“I was hopeful that he was hearing what we were saying, and when he came back a second time with tentative plans, he really was listening,” she said. “Things that we had discussed, he had implemented. Most developers don’t listen, or they listen but don’t implement.”

In particular, association members asked for outdoor areas where they could eat or just sit and relax, Derr said. They also wanted the center to provide views of a nearby arroyo filled with oaks. The final design includes both suggestions.

Equally important, Derr said, was Caruso’s willingness to work within the city’s development guidelines. Several years ago, a proposal for a shopping center at the intersection’s southwest corner died after neighbors complained that it was too tall and dense, and required too many exemptions from city policies.

Kirsten Larsen, president of the Westlake Hills Property Owners Assn., noted the new project’s compliance with city standards in a letter to the city’s Planning Department supporting the project.

“Finally, there is a proposal that is suitable, and we can and do support it,” she wrote.

Besides the letter, commissioners have received many phone calls supporting the project and none in opposition, Commissioner Marilyn Carpenter said.

Commissioner Ronald Polanski said that by seeking citizen input first, Caruso had created a project with relatively few potential problems. “What that’s really doing is cleaning the project up, upfront,” he said.