Home Depot holds all the cards on Kmart site

Regarding Conrad Kantor's letter to the editor "Common sense should prevail on Home Depot plan" (July 26 T.O. Acorn), Kantor and a few others have complained about how the shopping center on Hampshire Road has fallen into disrepair since the old Kmart closed.

What people may not know is that Home Depot bought out Kmart's lease and has held up any redevelopment of the property since 2004. Similar to their abandoned store on Ventu Park Road in Newbury Park, Home Depot squats on the land, keeping anything else out. The property owners obtain their lease revenues, so Kantor's concern for property rights misses the point.

It's Home Depot that has the responsibility to maintain its lease property and prevent it from becoming an eyesore.

Another fact that people like Kantor may not be aware of is that the property is zoned for a C-1 Neighborhood Shopping Center, according to Thousand Oaks municipal code.

The current Home Depot on Teller Road in Newbury Park and the already-mentioned old store on Ventu Park are located in C-3 Community Shopping Center zones.

If Kantor truly believes that developers should be subject to local zoning, then he should agree that Home Depot belongs in an area that was planned for the amount of traffic a communitywide store would attract.

There are more options for the redevelopment of the old Kmart than a second Home Depot or a vacant storefront, despite Kantor's dire warning.

The city is rightly moving ahead with an environmental impact report for the project, and the public will have an opportunity to weigh in with their opinions.

Uncommon good sense is what's needed where the proposed Home Depot in Westlake Village is concerned. Nino DeFrano Westlake Village