Maybe there's hope for intelligent decision-making in local government.

The rejection of a second Home Depot in Thousand Oaks gives me great encouragement that local leaders both think and listen before they decide.

The second Home Depot would have resulted in a loss of revenue for the city as smaller businesses would have been driven out and as people simply spread their buying between two Home Depot stores.

The negative impact of the poorly located second store would have dumped traffic into a quiet, residential part of Thousand Oaks, clogged traffic at the obsolete 101 Freeway/Hampshire Road underpass, and encouraged day laborers to congregate near the store.

I had little hope that the Thousand Oaks council would view the project objectively, but I give them great credit for listening to the community and making a decision that perhaps a few months ago they might not have made. Jonathan Greenspan Westlake Village