City Reevaluating Plans for Parcel

Councilmen Andy Fox and Ed Masry soon will begin meetings with Caruso Affiliated Holdings to reexamine the developer’s $40-million plans for a high-profile parcel next to City Hall.

Fox said he approached Caruso officials after reading news reports detailing the financial woes of the movie theater industry. The anchor in Caruso’s project would be an 11- to 14-screen stadium-seat theater, for which an operator must be signed by April, according to the company’s development agreement with the city. Thousand Oaks currently has no stadium-seat theaters, which allow for better movie viewing.

The seven-acre piece of land, which Caruso would lease from the city for $1 a year, would also include a one-acre pond that could be frozen in the winter, restaurants, office space and retail shops.

Caruso officials have said they would still like to build the theater--which is intended to draw visitors to the planned Ventura County Discovery Center Science Museum as well as the performing arts theaters at the Civic Arts Plaza--but simply may need to adjust the timeline.

Some city officials, however, including Masry, Councilwoman Linda Parks and Mayor Dan Del Campo, have expressed doubts about the theater component’s potential success.

A few residents who spoke at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, when the new negotiations were unanimously authorized, said they would prefer to allow Caruso’s agreement to expire if a theater operator could not be booked.