Landowner Files Suit Over Jungleland Motel Denial

A Thousand Oaks landowner is suing the city because it rejected her plan to build a motel near the Jungleland civic center site and later entered into a tentative agreement with another developer to build a hotel at the site.

“They wanted to eliminate the competition for their hotel,” said attorney Michael Cane, who filed a lawsuit against the city May 21 on behalf of landowner Myrna Lee Mekelburg.

“The underlying reason for denying the motel is Jungleland,” Cane said. “Their decision was arbitrary and capricious.”

Shortly after the the city denyed Mekelburg’s request in January, officials announced that they had reached a tentative agreement with Lowe Development Co., a Los Angeles firm that wants to build a hotel and office complex at the Jungleland site, according to the suit. The City Council has not yet scheduled a vote on the matter.

“Something is going on here,” Cane said.

But City Atty. Mark G. Sellers said Wednesday that the city’s decision to deny Mekelburg’s request to build the motel on a 2.25-acre site has nothing to do with the Jungleland project. He said the project would have required extensive grading of a hillside, something the city code prohibits.

“It would have required the removal of 900 cubic yards of dirt,” Sellers said. “They would have had to move the hill.”

Nevertheless, Cane said he is asking that the council’s denial be overturned and that Mekelburg be allowed to proceed with her plans to build the motel on Thousand Oaks Boulevard near Erbes Road.

“The reality is they’re abusing this woman,” Cane said. “She has spent $50,000, and the city is pulling the plug on it. Now what she is left with is a useless hunk of property.”

Cane said he plans to use a comment made by Councilman Larry Horner at a January meeting as evidence of the city’s intention to stop the hotel competition.

Horner had said it would be disgusting to allow development of a motel within a short distance of the proposed hotel and redevelopment project.

But Horner said Wednesday that his comments were not meant as an attempt to diminish the competition to the Jungleland hotel. He said he simply does not want any more hotels or motels in the city because he thinks that Thousand Oaks has too many already. He said he is even opposed to the Jungleland hotel.

“The hotel is not my main concern,” Horner said. “My main concern is the tremendous impact the development would have on the environment. I don’t see how the council or anyone else could sanction tearing down a hill like that.”

“It’s foolishness,” City Manager Grant Brimhall said. “They wanted to move a mountain. . . . Now they’re reaching for straws.”

A court date has not yet been set on the matter.

The City Council has approved building a $55.6-million government complex on the 20-acre Jungleland site, which is to include a new City Hall and a civic auditorium. Construction is scheduled to begin in May, 1991, and be completed in 1993.