City planning improvements to Thousand Oaks Boulevard

Community Development Director John Prescott discussed the latest developments with Home Depot and Costco and the plans for improving Thousand Oaks Boulevard at the city's goal-setting session last month.

The Thousand Oaks Boulevard Association is planning to hold community outreach meetings to discuss its plans for Thousand Oaks Boulevard at 6 p.m. Wed., March 11 in the Civic Arts Plaza Oak/Park rooms and at 9 a.m. Sat., April 18 in the Civic Arts Plaza board room. The association plans to make a formal presentation at a May City Council meeting, Prescott said.

An appeal of the planning commission's approval of Home Depot is expected to come before the council on Tues., March 31.

Negotiations are back on to build a Costco near Wendy Drive and the 101 Freeway. If the conversations between Costco and the landowner turn into a new plan to build, the application process will be handled expeditiously, Prescott said.

The city has sent what it hopes is its completed Housing Element work to the state for approval. The state requires the city to have zoning for what the state has calculated is a reasonable number of housing units to allow for expected population growth. The council also voted to amend its municipal code to allocate space for an emergency shelter for the homeless by 2010 as required by the state.

The closure of Conejo Mobile Home Park, 1200 Newbury Road, has been filed with the city and accepted and is now ready to go to the planning commission, according to Prescott.

Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center's latest expansion has been filed, and its application has been accepted, he said. The hospital claims the expansion is necessary for meeting the state's retrofitting requirements by 2013.

Vallecito Mobile Home Estates, 1251 Old Conejo Road, filed an application for condominium conversion that was not accepted by the city because it was incomplete, Prescott said.

California Lutheran University hopes to add a twostory, 30,000square-foot academic building. And an assisted living facility near CLU is scheduled to go to the planning commission in March.

On June 9, the council is expected to hear about landscape maintenance, with an opportunity to vote on changing the city's standards to prevent the over-pruning of trees, Prescott said.

The question of how many neighbors should be consulted before a film permit is given out in Thousand Oaks will be discussed during a May City Council meeting. Currently, the proposed ordinance is being looked at by homeowners associations, he said.

An update on the oak tree ordinance in Thousand Oaks that protects mature oak trees from being trimmed without a permit from the city will also be discussed in May.