Minimal Building Urged for Transit Site

In a rare unanimous compromise, the Thousand Oaks City Council has decided to pursue minimal development at a park-and-ride lot south of the Ventura Freeway where a city transportation hub had been proposed.

A more intensive transit center will be built elsewhere, and the two locations will be linked through some form of transportation, the council decided late Tuesday.

Council members, who had rejected a proposal to build a major transfer station and transit headquarters at the Rancho Road site earlier this year, revisited the issue at the urging of the city’s Community Budget Task Force.

The council agreed to consider minimal development at the Rancho Road site to both preserve it as a park-and-ride lot, and to keep $1.8 million in state and federal grants secured to purchase the land and build a transfer center on the site. The owner of the 20-acre property, Calvary Community Church, was set to sell the land to a developer unless Thousand Oaks reconsidered its decision.

“I was certainly against a transportation center at this site, but I hate to lose that park-and-ride lot,” Mayor Judy Lazar said.

Councilwomen Elois Zeanah and Linda Parks initially said they were opposed to reopening discussion on a transportation facility at the disputed site, but changed their minds when they were told by city officials that development would be extremely limited.

“This will basically be a glorified park-and-ride lot,” Parks said.

Public Works Director Don Nelson said that in order to retain the state and federal money, Thousand Oaks did not even have to construct a building or restrooms on the site--just a bench with some form of shelter and a way for buses to pull in and out.

Councilman Andy Fox said such development was worth pursuing, but Thousand Oaks should look at other plans to build a full transportation hub at another location, possibly on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, to ensure that development at the park-and-ride lot does not intensify in the future.