Planners Split on Apartment Complex

A short-handed Planning Commission deadlocked Monday night on whether to allow the building of 108 apartments in an industrial area, and the City Council will now take up the issue.

Commissioners split 2 to 2, which results in a “no action” vote, on a request by Shapell Industries of Beverly Hills to change the land-use designation of 6.6 acres on the southeast corner of Lawrence Drive and Rancho Conejo Boulevard so that apartments could be built there.

Commissioners Linda Parks and Ronald Polanski opposed the change, while commissioners Forrest Frields and John Powers supported it. Commissioner Marilyn Carpenter was absent.

The City Council is scheduled to review the request Tuesday.

“Part of the concerns were from a traffic standpoint,” said planner Haidar Alawami. “They [Parks and Polanski] felt that apartments would generate more traffic than that area could support, even though [Thousand Oaks’ public works department] and the Transportation Commission showed otherwise.”

Parks and Polanski also questioned whether apartments belonged in an area surrounded by industry. And they noted that the apartments would conflict with Thousand Oaks’ policy that no more than 20% of the city’s housing stock should be apartments. Currently, about 25% of the housing in the city is multifamily dwellings, Alawami said.