Woodridge Builders Go on Offensive With 3,000 Mailers

Saying “political opportunists” have misrepresented the details of their proposed 273-home development, builders of the Woodridge project are striking back with a direct-mail campaign stating the facts as they see them.

The mailers, sent to about 3,000 homes, state that Woodridge completely complies with Thousand Oaks’ General Plan, or blueprint for growth, and that the development would complete a long-envisioned ring of trails around the city.

Moreover, the mailers state that the development, located just north of Thousand Oaks’ Lang Ranch and south of Simi Valley’s Wood Ranch, would effectively ensure that the two cities are never connected.

Michael Rosenfeld, one of the principals of Los Angeles-based Woodridge Associates, argued in an interview that the facts of the development proposal unquestionably show that it is a good deal for surrounding residents.

The purpose of the mailers, he said, is to convey those facts to the public. The mailers urge anyone who may have doubts to call city planners or the developers for information.

“The facts are really clear; they’re easily checked out and, consequently, we feel it can only help our cause to make them known,” Rosenfeld said. “No oak trees will be damaged. No ridgelines will be built on. It’s consistent with the General Plan. It’s not in a greenbelt.”

But Councilwoman Linda Parks, who opposes the Woodridge proposal on grounds that it would create urban sprawl by cutting into much of the open space between Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, sees the facts differently.

In Parks’ opinion, the mailer is a clear attempt to highlight some of the development’s positive attributes while glossing over its shortcomings, such as the fact that some houses would be built within 1,000 feet of houses in Simi Valley.

“I think some information is conspicuously missing,” she said. “We’re going to end up like the city of Oxnard, with no ring of open space, if we approve these kinds of developments. We’re taking houses in Thousand Oaks and bringing them hundreds of feet from Simi Valley.

“They say the glass is half full; I say it’s half empty.”

Woodridge is still in the early stages and has not yet been debated by Thousand Oaks’ Planning Commission or City Council. Because the land in question is within the county’s jurisdiction, it must also be annexed into Thousand Oaks before any development could occur.

Because Woodridge would be a gated community of large single-family homes that would sell for between $400,000 and $600,000, neighbors should see their property values shoot up, not down, if the project is built, according to the mailer.

Moreover, the houses would be built on 12% of the property, and the remaining 88%--about 625 acres--would be dedicated to the city as public open space. That would forever link land owned by Thousand Oaks, Ventura County, the National Park Service and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, as well as provide a link to the De Anza Trail, the path taken by the Spanish explorer on his way to Northern California 200 years ago.

“It’s convenient for some people to apply some issues that are issues in other parts of the county, such as preservation of the greenbelts, to this property,” Rosenfeld said. “That’s not fair. This project would [give] Thousand Oaks more public open space, not take it away.”

Edward Shuck, a resident of the Brock Collection neighborhood near the Woodridge site, is one of a group of people who strongly oppose the development proposal. The group, headed by Dan Del Campo, who ran unsuccessfully for the City Council last year, has been distributing fliers of its own blasting Woodridge for looking to tarnish the remaining undeveloped land in the growing area.

Shuck said he considers the mailer deceptive, particularly its claim that 625 acres will be given to the public. That is true, Shuck said, but what the mailer does not mention is that most of that land is too hilly to be developed anyway under Thousand Oaks’ strict growth control regulations.

“I put that thing in the wastebasket as soon as I received it,” he said. “I understand that they want to put the best side across, but this seems to be a little extreme. They’re saying they’re giving up this land out of the goodness of their hearts, when in fact most of that land could not be built on because of the slope.”

Rosenfeld said he and others have been meeting with nearby residents and inviting homeowner groups on a tour of the Woodridge property, hoping to at least inform everyone of what they really hope to build and what is merely speculation.

There will always be foes to any development in Thousand Oaks, Rosenfeld said, but the important thing is to argue about the development on its merits, not the doomsday predictions of anti-growth activists.

“We feel that once people understand the project, they will be supportive and will not be swayed by some of the rumor and innuendo that’s going around,” he said. “That’s our goal.”