Thousand Oaks on Edge Over Border Project

In what some fear could markedly change the suburban face of Thousand Oaks forever, the City Council is set to decide tonight whether to annex and rezone a strip of land outside the city for a luxury housing project.

For critics of the 256-home Woodridge development, at issue is the very character of the city and concerns that annexation of county-zoned open space will set a dangerous precedent for unchecked growth.

“We don’t need, nor can we handle, this kind of project right now,” said former City Council candidate Dan del Campo, who has been canvassing area neighborhoods with leaflets that encourage residents to attend tonight’s meeting, which starts at 7 at the Civic Arts Plaza.

“Not only would we be losing a lot more open space, but it’s going to be noisy and have serious impacts on things like our schools and roads,” he said.

Even pro-growth council members said the controversy surrounding Woodridge and the magnitude of the project has made them give the project extra scrutiny.

“It should come as no surprise that this is a real concern to people,” Councilman Andy Fox said. “There are a lot of important questions involved that residents and I need answers to.”

While Fox regards Woodridge as a fairly “straightforward and conscientious” project, he said that some of the land could be better used. For example, he said he would like to see oversize lots to accommodate horses incorporated into Woodridge, because of its proximity to trails that wind through the open space.

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For more than two years, the Woodridge project has been at the center of a heated debate. Some question whether approving the project will erode the decades-long preservation of open space and eliminate a self-imposed buffer separating the city from Simi Valley.

Councilwoman Linda Parks, a staunch advocate of slow growth, said she sees separation from neighbor cities as a priority. After riding her bicycle through the Woodridge site Monday, Parks said she had serious reservations about the project.

“If you look at a map of the area and development in recent years, it shows that they’ll eventually merge,” she said. “To say Woodridge won’t link them is just semantics. If it’s built, Simi Valley will just be a stone’s throw away. . . . We might as well rename it Simi Oaks.”

Parks also questioned whether the city should be creeping beyond its borders while there is still room to build. Although as much as 96% of the city is already built out, Parks said Thousand Oaks still has room for another 8,000 homes before capacity is reached.

“My feeling is that if this is going to happen it should happen when we need it,” she said. “Right now, that land should be saved and we should focus more of our attention to what’s going on inside the city.”

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As proposed, the Woodridge development would be built on a 743-acre crescent of county land east of Lang Ranch Parkway. Because the land is currently administered and zoned by the county, the City Council must vote to annex it before approving the housing project. The county has indicated that it would agree to cede the land if the city approves the plan.

The estimated $400,000 homes would be built on 85 acres in the western section of the property on 11,000-square-foot lots. Another 33 acres would be set aside as a buffer between the subdivision and surrounding brush and for water-retention basins.

Tonight’s meeting comes more than a month after the Planning Commission voted 3 to 2 to recommend that the City Council annex and rezone the property.

Developer Michael Rosenfeld has promised to donate the remaining 625 acres to the city to be set aside as permanent open space.

Responding to residents’ concerns, Rosenfeld said he will only extend Sunset Hills Boulevard into the development without running it or any roads in Thousand Oaks through to Simi Valley. The developer also has agreed to donate more than $1 million to the school district to address concerns about classroom overcrowding.

But such assurances have done little to comfort critics who regard them as largely piecemeal concessions.

“He isn’t doing us any favors,” Del Campo said of Rosenfeld. “We have to look at the long term. Our schools are already having a hard time reducing their class sizes and who’s to say what a future council will do when they’re asked to approve a road from Simi Valley through Woodridge?”