Council Backs Tying Growth to Schools

Hoping to get a better grasp on how developments before the city will affect schools, Thousand Oaks City Council members unanimously endorsed a proposal by Councilwoman Linda Parks to more closely consider such impacts.

Council members voted this week to move forward with a proposal by Parks to adopt an amendment to the city’s General Plan requiring Thousand Oaks to consider the expected impact on schools before approving residential developments.

Ventura recently passed a similar amendment, which also stipulates that school and city officials meet regularly to anticipate problems new developments might cause for schools.

Parks brought up the issue after Conejo Valley Unified School District officials said the children of some residents near the soon-to-be-built Lang Ranch Elementary School would not be able to attend the site, but children of the recently approved 252-home Woodridge development in the same area would.

Facing a public outcry from the parents of the excluded children, school board members later changed their minds, allowing the children to attend, and opted to turn Lang Ranch Elementary into the district’s first K-5 school.

Nevertheless, Parks believes the issue illustrated the need for closer communication between the two agencies, and for more debate by city officials of the effects of the developments they approve on public schools.

“We need to take their master plan and coordinate it with our expected residential build-out,” Parks said.