Residents Fear High-Density Development Plan Would Ruin Landmark Hillside

Some Thousand Oaks residents want to see their former City Hall renovated or sold, but not at the cost of packing a landmark hillside with dense development.

The city’s planning commissioners listened Monday to concerns from residents that a redevelopment plan for the old City Hall property at 401 W. Hillcrest Drive could spoil views of the hillside and remove too many of the city’s namesake trees.

The commissioners were considering whether to recommend that the Thousand Oaks City Council approve the plan, which envisions new housing and offices on the 62-acre property. The plan is a broad-brush attempt by the city to describe the kind of development it considers appropriate for the property, unused since city employees moved out in 1988.

“I would like to see you retain as much as possible that natural terrain at the site,” said Marshall Dixon, an area resident. “I would hope you would discourage high density. This has been a signature site in our city and should be again.”

Commissioner Linda Parks did not participate in the meeting, acting on the advice of the city attorney’s office. Parks is vice president of the Ventura County Discovery Center, an organization that wants to create a children’s museum in the former City Hall.

Parks questioned whether Commissioner John Powers should participate, since Powers’ construction company, Harbob Southern Inc., gave the city a price estimate for demolishing the old City Hall.

Powers said the estimate, performed before he became a commissioner, was provided to the city for free, not as a precursor to securing any contracts. It therefore did not represent any conflict of interest, he said.

The plan caps years of efforts by city leaders and residents to find new uses and tenants for the site at the intersection of Hillcrest and McCloud Avenue. In January 1994, a citizens committee proposed several possible development scenarios at the site, giving city leaders a choice among different densities of development.

The plan reviewed by the Planning Commission on Monday analyzed the most intense development scenario proposed, one that would allow as much as 272,000 square feet of corporate office space on the site or 437 dwelling units--a combination of houses, apartments and condominiums. New buildings on the hillside would be visible from nearby streets and the Ventura Freeway.

David Carpenter, who served on the citizens committee, said he worried that by focusing on the most intense scenario the city could be paving the way to excessive development on the property. Although the committee was willing to contemplate significant changes at the site, its members wanted the hill’s silhouette preserved, he said before the meeting.

“We felt that we would be willing to trade off a few oak trees and some grading for a really super development,” said Carpenter, whose wife is Planning Commissioner Marilyn Carpenter. “It appears that our own concessions could be used against us.”