Council ignored residents
on Sport Chalet

I was one of many residents of Thousand Oaks who attended the April 5 city council meeting in favor of appealing the Sport Chalet project. I spoke out against Sport Chalet coming into our neighborhood shopping center for the many things that will happen when the store is opened: increased traffic, increased noise, obstruction of views and removal of beautiful trees. And most important, this shopping center is not zoned for this huge building and for this type of business.

     When the public hearing began, I held out hope that the city council would listen to the concerns of the residents. I thought that they would do what was in the best interest of the residents. Boy was I ever wrong.  

It quickly became apparent that the council members had made up their minds before the public hearing even began. Deals apparently were already made between the city and the property owner and Sport Chalet. The residents never had a chance. All the council was interested in was making sure that the project went forward. It didn’t matter to them that the residents were going to suffer as a result of it.

What is wrong with city hall? The council members are voted in office by us to represent us, the taxpaying residents. They are supposed to listen to our concerns, especially when we make an effort by attending their meetings. They did not listen to anything we had to say. In fact, there were times during the evening that it looked like some of the council members were tuning us out altogether. They never made any effort to address our many, many concerns with the property owner and Sport Chalet. On the rare occasion when they did ask a question, they accepted answers that never fully answered the questions. 

    The council did what was best for a large corporation and a money- hungry property owner. Is the almighty dollar more important than the welfare of the residents?  Apparently city hall thinks so. 

It’s very disturbing to me to be represented by a group of politicians whose motive is money when instead it should be helping the residents. You can be sure that I will not vote for any of these people in the next election and you can sure that I will not be spending any of my money in Sport Chalet. I urge the residents of Thousand Oaks to do the same

Anita Shelley

Thousand Oaks