Planners Urge City to Reject Church Project

THOUSAND OAKS — Changes to a church’s plan to build housing, schools and a shopping center on the city’s western edge have failed to impress city planners, who suggest the city reject the project.

This recommendation about the massive Seventh-day Adventist project was included in a planning department report released Thursday. The Thousand Oaks Planning Commission, which is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposal Monday, must now decide whether to support or oppose the project before it is sent to the City Council.

The project, which would transform the church’s 458-acre property north of the Ventura Freeway near Wendy Drive, last appeared before the commission in January. City planners also recommended the project be rejected then, which the commission did.

In response, church officials retooled their project, cutting nearly in half the number of housing units proposed for the northern portion of the site.

The city report concluded, however, that the revised project would still be at odds with the city’s General Plan. If approved, the project would bring development to a steep hillside--something discouraged by the General Plan--and threaten the habitat of several rare and endangered plant species, the report said.

Linda Parks, commission vice chairwoman, said the church’s current proposal is little different from the proposal rejected months ago.

“They did not change enough,” she said. “They are still doing everything to the north side they were going to do before. . . . It hasn’t changed any of the impact.”

Charles Cohen, special counsel to the church, said church officials were optimistic despite the negative recommendation.

“We would always prefer a positive recommendation, but we’ve had a very good working relationship with staff, and it is only a recommendation,” he said. “We think [the project] will fare very well in the public hearing process.”

The church’s plan calls for a new high school, elementary school and preschool facilities on the northern end of the property, which would replace the current church schools at the site. Located nearby would be a development of six single-family homes, 12 townhomes, 27 apartment units and a 250-unit retirement complex.

On the southern end of the property, close to the freeway, existing schools and retirement housing would be demolished to make way for a 750,000-square-foot shopping center. The project would reserve 259 acres for open space.

Church officials have said they want to move the school buildings to a more rural setting and to replace the aging retirement housing.

Many of the project’s woes have sprung from the proposed development on the property’s northern end, which is currently vacant. Several rare plant species grow there, including one--Lyon’s pentachaeta--found only in nine other places in the world, Parks said.

The church’s development plans, the report concluded, would destroy or seriously harm the plants’ habitat.

Although city planners concluded the project did not meet the open space and conservation requirements of the city’s General Plan, Cohen said the finding was a matter of interpretation. He said the church hoped to persuade planning commissioners that the project is, in fact, consistent with the General Plan.

“It’s our task to show them that there really aren’t such inconsistencies,” he said.

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Proposed Development

The Seventh- day Adventist Church has proposed building a huge commercial center- including movie theaters, discount stores and restaurants- on part of its 458- acre parcel, adjancent to the Rancho Conejo Industrial Park. The church would relocate its school, sanctuary and senior citizen bungalows to another section of the property.

Source: Francisco Behr, Architect