Rezoning of Hillside Property Sought

The City Council is set to consider a recommendation to rezone a 22.5-acre parcel of hillside land for the development of single-family homes.

The land, which is currently zoned for rural cultivation and located in a saddle on the Mountclef Ridge near Olsen Road and Mountclef Boulevard, is divided into nine individual parcels with several different owners. In November 1992, the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission recommended that the council change the land’s zoning to allow its development.

For more than a decade, the land’s ultimate distinction has been in limbo due to its isolation and close proximity to the city’s ring of protected open space.

Some property owners, including Pearl Wong of Thousand Oaks, who with her husband owns a 4.5-acre parcel, have waited for more than two decades to finally build on it. She said she has been disappointed time and time again as several past rezoning initiatives have failed to bear fruit.

“Hopefully, at this hearing some concrete proposal will be established,” she wrote in a letter to the city. “Without your action, we would not be able to proceed with our plan to build on our property which we have now owned for over 20 years.”

If the council decides to rezone the property, any development would most likely have to follow some very stiff guidelines, including efforts to preserve the natural vistas from visual encroachment and strict grading requirements, because of its ridgeline location.