999 Oaks

Will the world come to a halt if Thousand Oaks has only 999?

No, but if Rick Caruso’s East Side Civic Arts Plaza project doesn’t get built in a dispute over the what to do with one remaining oak tree (the others will have been taken care of), then the city will lose its best chance in a decade to bring new vitality to Thousand Oaks Boulevard and realize hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential sales tax revenue.

To drag out final approval for the 48,000-square-foot shopping and dining complex—and to continue to rob the city and its residents of a much-needed economic boost—is inexcusable.

We ask that the city council honor its four-year-old binding agreement with Caruso, including a decision to approve the project last July, and vote March 9 to order the construction underway.

Caruso offered to move the old tree to a safe location if that’s what it takes, yet the planning commission still voted 3-2 to reject the project as currently planned.

One thing’s for sure, if Caruso’s part of the new development doesn’t get built, then it’s unlikely the Discovery Center will either.

Is there a danger of the project having too little parking, as is the case with the Promenade? Possibly, but what do we do, throw the baby out with the bath water? If the movie theaters come then a parking garage will be built, which is a much better solution than having acres upon acres of parking lot. The Discovery Center, in the meantime, will have its own parking.

In the end, residents don’t want just a park and open space next to the Civic Arts Plaza; they’ve expressed support for the dining and shopping complex over and over. They want to have a place to go to and be proud, know that their children are being entertained and are safe, and that when all the dust settles a year from now, Thousand Oaks will have the finest, most environmentally friendly entertainment complex in the Conejo Valley, if not the entire region.

Build the East Side project now and start making some tax dollars for the community, not spending them.