Planners Approve Plan for Housing

The Planning Commission has approved the subdivision of about seven acres on the northwest corner of Ramona Drive and Haigh Road into 26 parcels for single-family, Mediterranean-style homes.

A 60-unit apartment complex had been authorized for the same area in 1986 but was never built, City Planner Edwin Rinke said.

Thousand Oaks planning commissioners and three residents who spoke at a meeting Monday said the new project was better for the city.

“I think it was an improvement over the project that had been previously approved,” Commissioner Marilyn Carpenter said. “This provides for single-family housing, which a lot of people in the community prefer.”

But the commission attached conditions to the project that have increased its cost, said George Elias, a planning consultant retained by the project’s developer, Crystal View Partners.

The commission required double panes for windows facing the Ventura Freeway and a 6-foot wall--instead of the 5-foot wall requested by the developer--to surround the project.

“I thought we were complying with city standards,” Elias said. “We think the commission is being ultraconservative.”

The developer is assessing the financial impact of the commission’s decision and may appeal to the City Council, Elias said. If the financial burden imposed by the conditions is considered too great, the developer may pull out of the project altogether, he added.