Thousand Oaks OKs Project Funds

Without any of the infighting and bickering it has become known for, the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to spend $57 million for the first two years of a five-year capital improvement budget.

Of the overall $123-million budget, 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.

Under the portion of the plan approved Tuesday, those two bottlenecks will be repaired by July 1997. By that time, the city expects to have spent $16.2 million to repair a number of city streets.

Moreover, during the first two years of the capital improvement plan, Thousand Oaks plans to spend $2.8 million to remodel the aging Los Robles Greens golf course, $4 million to repair the earthquake-damaged Thousand Oaks Library, and $150,000 to buy an aging home on Hillcrest Drive so that it can be remodeled and later sold to a low-income family.

The five-year budget also includes $4.3 million to expand the library by 30,000 square feet, $12 million to cover start-up costs for the yet-to-be approved Hill Canyon golf course, and $6.3 million to add 33 new traffic signals as well as upgrade existing signals.

The notable lack of rancor surrounding the hearing was mostly because of a decision to leave the divisive, still unresolved issue of the Hill Canyon waste water treatment plant out of the discussion.

City public works officials, along with Mayor Andy Fox and council members Judy Lazar and Mike Markey, support a $75-million expansion and upgrade of the sewage facility. But Councilwomen Elois Zeanah and Jaime Zukowski believe such a large expansion is not needed.

The City Council voted last week to significantly hike developers’ connection fees and raise residents’ monthly sewer bills by $1.80, but city officials say the extra revenue would not be enough to pay for an expansion or even allow Thousand Oaks to replace outdated equipment.

The meeting was not completely without disagreement, however.

Zeanah said she has some problems with the capital improvement budget itself. This is the first year that Thousand Oaks has separated its operating and capital improvement budgets, and Zeanah argued that the new format has created confusion.

“The lack of clarity, the lack of information that allows council members and members of the public to make decisions . . . concerns me,” Zeanah said.

But Lazar disagreed, saying the new budgets contain more information than ever and are organized in an easy-to-read manner.

“I think many people find this document easy to follow,” Lazar said. “And I’m sorry if not all council members find it that way.”