5-Year Plan Earmarks $123 Million for Projects

Some of the city’s thorniest intersections would be widened, and the city’s overburdened waste-water system expanded, under a proposed capital improvement budget released Wednesday.

The five-year spending plan lines up more than $123 million in capital projects. The city has already secured funding for all but about $12.8 million of that total.

More than $31 million would go toward street repairs and upgrades--most notably widening the interchanges of Moorpark and Hampshire roads with the Ventura Freeway.

“The two major bottlenecks in the community are going to be [repaired] in the next two fiscal years,” City Manager Grant Brimhall said.

Expansion of the waste-water system--including an upgrade of the Hill Canyon Waste Treatment Plant, which has been the subject of a months-long council stalemate--would receive more than $28 million.

The budget proposal, all 256 pages of it, will be the focus of a City Council workshop Tuesday as city leaders wade into the process of setting the city’s long-term spending priorities. The council may then vote on the plan--which is separate from the city’s operating budget, approved in February--at its May 14 meeting.

“This is the first workshop to get the input and make some tweaks here and there,” Councilman Mike Markey said.

In addition to improving streets and sewers, the budget includes $4.3 million to expand the Thousand Oaks Library by 30,000 square feet to accommodate more books. It also includes $3.8 million to improve the Los Robles Greens golf course and $12 million to cover start-up costs for the yet-to-be-approved Hill Canyon golf course.

Hoping to keep increasing traffic in check, city officials have proposed $6.3 million to add 33 traffic signals and upgrade others around the city.

The budget also includes $4.8 million for transportation projects such as improved bicycle trails, bus shelters or a proposed multiuse transportation center. It earmarks only $399,000, however, to acquire open space and build new trails.

Mayor Andy Fox said he is not too concerned that the capital improvement budget has little money for open space because the City Council recently decided to use a portion of golf course fees for that task.

“We’ve already taken a large step with respect to that [open space] maintenance issue,” Fox said. “Our decision with the golf course will help ease that burden on the budget.”

The budget will force council members to once again confront divisive spending decisions--most notably the fate of the Hill Canyon waste-water treatment plant.

Thousand Oaks public works officials are recommending a massive expansion of the plant to meet the needs they project for the growing city. But council members Elois Zeanah and Jaime Zukowski are opposed to the expansion, saying it is designed to accommodate more development than they consider appropriate.

The budget recommends essentially the same expansion that public works officials have discussed for months, Brimhall said.

“What is being proposed is what the council has been wrestling with for a long time, and the wrestling will surely continue,” he said.

Markey said he wants the council to decide the waste-waste system issue once and for all at its May 7 meeting.

“It’s something we have to deal with as a council because it has to be done,” he said.

Baker is a correspondent. Bustillo is a Times staff writer.