Recently, the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission approved a request to build a 40,000-square-foot Sport Chalet store in the Conejo Valley Plaza shopping center at Moorpark and Janss roads. The building would replace an existing 14,400-square-foot multi-tenant building. The building height is planned at 33 feet, with one section at 38 feet.

The city of Thousand Oaks has a very old zoning ordinance titled "Neighborhood Shopping Center Zones (C-1)." The purpose is defined in Sec. 9-4.1200. The C-1 or neighborhood shopping center zone is intended for planned neighborhood shopping centers where the land and compatible retail stores and associated facilities are designed and developed together as an integrated unit using modern site planning techniques.

The primary tenant will usually be a supermarket or drugstore, and the center will serve only the convenience needs, such as food, drugs, hardware and personal services, of a residential area. Such centers are required to fit into the residential patterns of development and not create either architectural or traffic conflicts. More than 50 specific types of uses are listed—all compatible with the adjacent residential properties.

The Sport Chalet proposal doesn’t even come close to meeting the intent of this ordinance.

As Thousand Oaks reaches buildout, I see disturbing trends toward higher density all over the city. With a limited number of approved commercial shopping center sites, the pressure is on to expand the usage of existing centers.

The intrusion of a regional-based Sport Chalet store, which would be "shoehorned" into a neighborhood shopping center, is totally inappropriate. The impact on adjacent single-family residential homes means subjecting these homeowners to greater traffic, increased noise, disturbing lights, dust, vandalism, etc.

Sport Chalet is a long-established, highly regarded sporting goods retailer. This store is estimated to generate at least $7 million to $8 million per year in sales—and that takes a lot of shoppers from way beyond the Conejo Valley.

I’m sure many residents would welcome a Sport Chalet to our community. It should be apparent to all concerned, however, that the proposed location for this store is not in conformance with the city’s own zoning ordinance.

Richard D. Hus

Thousand Oaks