Commission Delays Dos Vientos Hearing

The city Planning Commission has postponed until next week’s meeting a hearing on a request by Courtly Homes, one of the developers for Dos Vientos Ranch, to modify a blueprint for a 224-unit tract within the 2,360-unit Newbury Park development.

But just before adjourning early Tuesday, the Thousand Oaks commission decided to begin discussing the request at 5 p.m. Monday, two hours ahead of the meeting’s scheduled start time.

Facing a deadline, the commission wanted more time to review the long-debated housing project’s proposal.

Courtly Homes wants the commission to approve the building of 208 single-family detached condominiums instead of the 224 attached duplex units currently planned.

The commission is under pressure to finish deliberations on that application and on a request by the same developer for modifications to another Dos Vientos tract.

Under the development agreement for Dos Vientos, which was approved in 1988, the city is required to expedite the processing of tract maps, said Assistant City Atty. Nancy Schreiner.

The two Courtly Homes applications were submitted more than a year ago and have to be processed before Aug. 12 or the city could be liable for any losses by the developers, Schreiner said. The commission’s Monday meeting is the last before the panel’s August recess.

The Courtly Homes applications have been delayed because the commission’s last two meetings have been taken up by more than 11 hours of hearings on proposed amendments to Dos Vientos by the project’s other developer, Operating Engineers.