Revisions Approved for General Plan

As part of the city’s efforts to update its General Plan, planning commissioners have approved revisions to the chapters concerning conservation of natural resources and protection against floods, fires and other disasters.

The two updated chapters will now go to the Thousand Oaks City Council for final approval.

Like all sections of the General Plan, the chapters approved by the commission Monday night spell out broad goals and policies that guide city government actions as Thousand Oaks continues to grow.

The plan’s conservation element describes the city’s natural resources--its geography, plants and animal communities--and lists policies designed to protect them. For example, the element says that streams and creeks, often home to many plants and animals, should be preserved in as natural a state as possible. To protect natural flood plains, the element recommends that those areas be left either as open space or developed as parks, golf courses or other uses that do not block the flow of water.

The safety element concerns the dangers Thousand Oaks could face from such calamities as earthquakes, mudslides and fires.

It recommends that new buildings be set back from unstable hillsides and that flammable brush near buildings along the city’s edge be cut back periodically.

It also suggests that city officials design a flood warning system for residents living in flood plains.