Chain Reaction

It’s not just for the frugal.

Down the aisle from the 24-packs of toilet rolls, you will find $68 bottles of Chateau Laffite Rothschild, a top-rated Bordeaux wine.

Opposite the oversized boxes of breakfast cereal, there are inviting antipasto trays, thinly sliced smoked salmon platters and fresh bread from Il Fornaio and La Brea Bakery.

And a few feet away from discounted car batteries, a shiny $1,500 tandem bike lures well-heeled cycling aficionados.

Whether it is its select merchandise or the stucco exterior walls and red-tiled roofs--instead of the usual oversized concrete shoe box appearance--the new Costco Wholesale in Westlake Village has managed to placate many Conejo Valley residents who tried to keep the discount store from setting up shop in their neighborhood.

In Thousand Oaks, some people still shun the store as a matter of principle. But three months after the opening of the 136,000-square-foot warehouse at the corner of Lindero Canyon Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard, many in the city routinely step over the Los Angeles County line to shop at the discount-yet-upscale store.

“I was a bit apprehensive about it,” said David McGee, a resident of Westlake Hills in Thousand Oaks. The county’s other Price-Costco warehouses in Oxnard and Simi Valley “weren’t the quality of establishment we like to see in our community,” McGee said.

Price-Costco, a members-only chain of discount stores formed from the 1993 merger of Price Club and Costco Wholesale, is best known for its warehouse-style stores and discounted merchandise.

“There was a lot of fear that it would downgrade the community,” McGee said. But the Mission-style architecture and the upscale merchandise have gone a long way to dissipate those fears, McGee said.

“From my point of view, having been there a couple of times, I think it is going to be an asset,” he said. “The only question in my mind is, will their corporate culture maintain that level of quality?”

Roberta Leavitt, who lives on the shores of Westlake Lake in Thousand Oaks, was even more upbeat.

“We love it,” Leavitt said as she pushed a cart out of the warehouse and into a parking lot filled with minivans, sport utility vehicles and luxury sedans. But Leavitt said that during the planning stages, she was somewhat wary about the store.

“I wasn’t gung-ho about it,” Leavitt said. “I was not sure of the impact it would have on the community. They did a fabulous job. It is the nicest Costco I have ever seen.”

Leavitt, who had shopped at the Simi Valley and Oxnard stores in the past, said the merchandise at the Westlake Village store was outstanding. Pointing to her cart, which contained wine gift packs and smoked fish, she added: “I have never seen a selection like this.”

Though he refused to disclose the store’s membership, manager Tom Padilla said it was “above expectations.” And most new members are from the Conejo Valley, he added.

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During the planning stages, critics invoked a litany of problems that they thought the store would bring to their tranquil community: traffic, crime, undesirable visitors from out of the area and a parking lot littered with oversized shopping carts. The store was simply not suited to the upscale Conejo Valley, they said.

Thousand Oaks residents joined their neighbors across the county line to bring their concerns to the Westlake Village City Council.

Across the county line, the project provoked a protest rally at the site, a legal challenge to the City Council’s April 1995 approval of the store and even a recall campaign against two council members who voted for it. The efforts were unsuccessful, and the store opened its doors in August.

There was also a certain amount of snobbism, McGee said. “People would rather have a Nordstrom than a Price-Costco. [Price-Costcos] have a cut-rate reputation, and the people in Westlake have a different image of themselves.”

And although many former critics are now pleased with the store, the protests were not alarmist rhetoric, they say. Instead, there was useful input that helped bring the store up to community standards.

The store turned out better than expected “because people were up in arms about it,” said Cathy Schutz, president of the Westlake Joint Board of Homeowner Assns., an umbrella group that represents homeowners in Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village. Because members of her group had concerns, were vocal and participated in the planning process, the end result was better, Schutz said.

“Because of all those suggestions, the council took a closer look at it, and Costco took a closer look at it,” Schutz said. “We care about where we live. We want to preserve what we love and the reason why we moved here.”

Padilla, who has managed Costco stores in Oxnard and San Jose, said that in terms of both appearance and merchandise, Costco had made an effort to blend in with the Conejo Valley.

“I know the opposition was vocal, but I don’t know specifically what it was about,” Padilla said. “I don’t think people had a vision of what [the store] was going to be like.”

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The fight over the Westlake Village Costco is not unique.

Designers of the chain’s stores are facing more and more demands from communities where the company wants to set up shop, according to Chandler Stever of Mulvanny Partnership Architects P.S., a Bellevue, Wash., firm that designs most of the Price-Costco developments throughout the world.

“It seems as though we are doing more of these types of things,” Stever said about the Mission-style Westlake Village Costco that he designed. “It is not one of a kind, but it’s certainly not common.”

Upscale communities increasingly require a higher degree of detail and want to break down the large box appearance, Stever said. “When Costco goes into these areas they know the requirements up front,” he added.

Still, Bob Theobald, planning director for Westlake Village, said Costco officials initially insisted on keeping the warehouse style their stores are known for.

“They entered the process with the mind set that their facilities are warehouses,” Theobald said. “We maintained that these were unique circumstances, and that they had to make the store consistent with commercial developments in the Conejo Valley.”

According to Theobald, store designers worked with the city, and most differences have been resolved. He listed the most significant outstanding issues:

The landscaping that separates the store’s parking lot from its neighbor, the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park, has to be improved to obscure the store from the cemetery. The signage on some of the building needs to be toned down and shields have to be placed on the parking lot lights to minimize glare.

Theobald agreed with Schutz that community input was useful.

“Public participation always helps get the best project we can,” Theobald said. “The feedback we get from the community about Costco is pretty positive.”

The community is likely to remain vocal as Costco is only a small portion of a huge 130-acre development known as Westlake North that will include more retail shopping, office buildings, 179 detached condos and a park.

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Though even the most vocal critics of Costco agree that the store hasn’t brought the nightmarish traffic scenarios they feared, some residents think the store is an eyesore in their otherwise scenic community.

“I still don’t feel that the architecture has done anything to change the image of the store,” said Larry Horner, former mayor of Thousand Oaks. “I don’t plan on patronizing it. It would be hypocritical for me to vigorously oppose it and then patronize it.”

Bill Murphy, a resident of Westlake Island, said he didn’t think it was appropriate to locate the store next to a cemetery. For him, Costco is just one more sign that the Conejo Valley is growing too fast and losing its tranquil character.

But Sharon Hartshorn, who lives near Wildwood Regional Park on the opposite end of town, said she was indifferent to the fight over the store. The whole issue had a feeling of deja vu: while living in Hawaii, she witnessed a similar fight over a Price-Costco where many residents who tried to prevent the store from setting up in their neighborhood ended up shopping there once it was built.

“A lot of people here were concerned it would bring people from out of the area,” Hartshorn said as she pushed a half-filled shopping cart out of the store. “But this store caters to the clientele in Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village.”