Old City Hall Finds New Life as Center for Parks, Theater

The former City Hall building was a mess.

It sat vacant and vandalized on a hillside, a sad reminder of days gone by when fewer homes dotted the Conejo Valley and less traffic traveled the nearby Ventura Freeway.

But the two-building complex that once served as the local center of government has found new tenants and a new purpose.

The Arts Council Center, in partnership with the city and the Conejo Recreation and Park District, plans to move into the northernmost building at 401 W. Hillcrest Drive by early next year. The park district intends to move its administrative offices into the same building, bringing more of its operations under one roof.

The changes mean the former City Hall, with its trapezoid shapes, will be fully occupied for the first time since government workers abandoned the building 13 years ago. The regional headquarters for the National Park Service has leased the south building in the complex since 1997.

“To me, it’s been worth the wait to come up with this use of it,” said City Manager MaryJane V. Lazz. “[They complement] each other, between the National Park Service, the park district and the cultural organization activities [being there]. It all goes together.”

Thousand Oaks plans to spend $4.6 million to renovate the 36,000-square-foot north building, which is currently gutted and chained off to keep out vandals. The money will come from the city’s capital improvements fund. The park district will kick in an additional $1 million, expected to come from the sale of its administrative building on Wilbur Road.

The Arts Council will vacate the Janss House, where it has offered visual and performing arts programs for the past 25 years. Unlike the National Park Service, which pays the city $411,800 annually, there will be an unconventional lease agreement between the Arts Council and the park district.

The Arts Council is expected to arrange a deal similar to the one in place at the city-owned Janss House. The Arts Council will provide the programs while the park district provides staff support. And the city will cover utilities and the cost of maintaining the building.

Renovations are expected to begin by August. The work will include new electrical wiring and plumbing, along with the installation of drywall and other features to make the building habitable again. The park district and Arts Council are expected to move in by spring 2002.

The Arts Council decided to relocate to the former City Hall building after architects estimated it would cost $1.6 million to renovate the Janss House, a 5,000-square-foot, single-story home built in 1931 as a summer retreat for Edwin Janss Sr. and his family. Most of those repairs would have involved making the home handicapped-accessible with ramps and wider hallways.

The city is considering a plan to turn the historic landmark into a temporary residence for visiting artists. That way, the house would remain a public building, but for private use--and not subject to the same stringent codes established by the Americans with Disabilities Act, officials said.

So why spend $5.6 million on Hillcrest Drive when the city could spend $1.6 million to modernize the Janss House?

Ed Johnduff, special projects manager for Thousand Oaks, said the city would have had to renovate the former City Hall no matter which tenant moved in. He said the city also had made a decision to dedicate the north building to community purposes, rather than seeking a commercial tenant.

Then there is the matter of elbow room. The park district will move into about 10,000 square feet of the building, giving it additional space and enabling it to hold its board meetings there instead of at the Goebel Senior Adult Center on Janss Road.

The Arts Council will occupy about 15,000 square feet, three times more than the entire Janss House. This will allow the Arts Council to expand its art, dance and theater programs.

The building’s remaining 7,000 usable square feet will be used for meeting, rehearsal and classroom space for community programs. There also will be a black-box theater with seating for up to 102 people. Right now, the Arts Council’s theater is in what used to be the Janss family’s living room, which seats 45.

“It will be a much-improved venue for the arts, certainly a lot more visibility, larger space, more capacity,” said Tex Ward, general manager for the park district.

Still, some local theater groups are wary of change.

Michael Jordan, president of Gothic Productions, said it will be nice to have the extra room to rehearse and perform. But he enjoys the intimacy of a smaller venue, and the flexibility of being able to perform in the Arts Council’s outdoor courtyard if it fits the performance.

“The [Janss House] has a certain charm. I’ve been there a long time. That makes it a little hard to give up,” said Jordan, whose theater group has staged performances at the Janss House for nearly two decades. “[The new facility has] potential to be very good. I’m just a little leery.”

The former City Hall was built in 1974 by Robert Mason Houvenor, who won a national competition for the design. The city occupied it for 14 years until asbestos was found in the ceilings. City workers moved out with plans to eventually move back in to their old digs.

City leaders soon decided they wanted to consolidate operations into a single building. In 1989, the city was pursuing plans to build a performing arts center. So, instead of returning to 401 W. Hillcrest, the city decided to build a combination municipal center and performing arts venue, which later became the Civic Arts Plaza on Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

The city later put the former City Hall on the market and considered selling it to developers, whose proposals have included everything from condominiums and townhomes to restaurants and apartment complexes. But the density of the suggested projects was always too high to win city approval. Some residents also feared turning the hillside into a stucco metropolis.

So the former City Hall sat vacant, attracting squatters and vandals. In 1996, the National Park Service expressed interest in leasing the south building for its regional headquarters and signed a lease the following year. City and park officials say it just makes sense to move the Arts Council into the other portion.

“I would say there’s hardly a single person who isn’t aware of the old City Hall. The fireworks are shot there,” said Scott Buchanan, who runs the Arts Council’s programs for the park district. “It’s a landmark building. Everyone knows where it is.”