Residents Appeal Decision on Housing

A group of Newbury Park residents has appealed a July 29 decision by the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission that would allow additional buildings within the Dos Vientos Ranch development.

The appeal automatically sends the case to the City Council.

“We feel the decisions taken that night were important enough to go to the council,” said Lorraine Flattery, who filed the appeal.

The flap over the commission’s vote centers around use of an ordinance passed by the council earlier this year. That ordinance allows certain building design modifications in so-called “in-fill” lots--those substantially surrounded by existing or approved developments.

Hoping to take advantage of the ordinance, Courtly Homes Inc., one of the two developers on the 2,350-home project--asked for permission to build 208 single-family homes in a tract that was initially planned for 244 attached duplexes--or 122 two-unit buildings. The commission approved the request.

But critics said the Dos Vientos tract in question did not qualify as in-fill. The ordinance, they said, was aimed at revitalizing existing older developments.

“This decision distorts the purpose of the ordinance,” Flattery said. “I will be adversely affected by the commission’s distortion of the definition of ‘in-fill.’ The commission’s precedent-setting decision will reduce our standards for housing tracts throughout the city.”

The changes will increase the project’s adverse environmental effects without increasing the measures required to offset them, Flattery said.

Save Open Space, an environmental advocacy group active in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, is a co-signer of the appeal, which cost $725 to file. The money was donated by area residents, Flattery said.

No date has been set for the council’s review of the project.