Thousand Oaks Eases Limits on Planned Health Club

Operators of a proposed around-the-clock health club have received concessions from the City Council to allow it to better accommodate its early-rising customers.

The 24-Hour Fitness chain, which plans to transform the building at 2595 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. into a health club, expects to open its facility next year. Sale of the building is currently in escrow, according to Don Fischbeck, the company’s director of construction.

The company declined to comment on what the health club would offer, though its application to the Planning Commission indicated it plans to include an outdoor pool, among other facilities.

In its first review, the panel imposed numerous restrictions on the club’s 24-hour operations, such as a six-month review period to determine the effect of the around-the-clock operations on the community.

Health club officials appealed some of those conditions to the council at its Tuesday night meeting and received a loosened restriction on the rear parking lot’s operating hours. This will allow people to use the lot as early as 6 a.m., rather than an hour later, as had originally been required.

The front lot will contain about 100 of the health club’s 230 parking spaces, but club officials said they were concerned that the lot could not contain the influx of early-morning patrons, who frequently schedule their exercise routine before they go to work.

The building now houses the offices of the Thousand Oaks edition of the Ventura County Star.