Auto dealers will tax themselves to get more parking spaces
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

Auto dealers at the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall need more places to park cars, so much so that they presented a petition to the T.O. City Council agreeing to tax themselves to help the city improve public streets.

The plan is to make the 55-acre area along the 101 Freeway more pedestrian- and parking-friendly.

The council adopted a resolution on March 18 acknowledging the receipt of the petition to form a Community Facilities District for parking improvements. It also authorized spending money for city staff and consultants to establish the district and authorized them to start hiring people to create civil engineering proposals and project designs.

The design costs, including construction drawings, are estimated to be $500,000.

Auto mall owners and the city have agreed to evenly split the costs of the design work. The special property tax for the CFD won't be finalized until the project is designed, competitive bids have been received and costs have been determined, according to a report provided by city finance director Candis Hong.

The city's $250,000 share of the engineering design will be funded from the Redevelopment Agency's capital budget, Hong said.

According to Hong, the design process is expected to take about one year.

Once the costs of construction are determined, the tax rate will be set and the city can move forward with the formation of the facilities district.

The city already has three CFDs- Janss Marketplace, Westlake Promenade and the Lang Ranch residential project.

The Westlake Promenade CFD also funded facilities for public parking.

Helping the auto mall resolve parking issues is listed on the city's Top 10 Priority list. The city's redevelopment agency's current budgets, this year's and next year's, appropriated $2 million of redevelopment funds to construct additional spaces, though no work has yet been completed. The council set aside the money but didn't determine how the funds would be spent.

Auto mall employees are among those having trouble finding places to park in the auto mall area, Hong said.