Landowner Wants Out of Thousand Oaks’ Annexation Area

Thousand Oaks is at odds with a landowner over his request to secede from territory designated for future annexation to the city.

Ventura County’s Local Agency Formation Commission is scheduled Wednesday to consider a request by Harman Rasnow and three other Ventu Park landowners to remove 430 acres of ridgeline property from the boundaries of Thousand Oaks’ sphere of influence, an area set aside by the county for future growth.

Rasnow acquired 200 acres from the county in 1963 and contends that Thousand Oaks has been trying to force him into the city since it incorporated in 1964.

“This has been an ongoing battle for 25 years,” Rasnow said. “I’m going to put a stop to it if I have to go to court.”

The last battle with the city was in 1984, when Thousand Oaks proposed and then abandoned a plan to annex Rasnow’s property.

“We beat them that time, but only because we had to go down there and fight,” he said.

Although growth in unincorporated areas is regulated by the county, cities usually have a say in development that occurs around them if it occurs in their sphere.

The boundaries of Thousand Oaks’ sphere of influence stretch from the Conejo Grade on the west to Westlake Village’s city limits to the east. To the south, the boundary crosses the ridge that separates Thousand Oaks from Hidden Valley and Lake Sherwood.

Although there have been minor modifications since LAFCO outlined the boundaries of Thousand Oaks’ sphere in June, 1981, Rasnow’s request to secede is the first, LAFCO Director Robert Braitman said.

City officials want the commission to reject Rasnow’s request.

In a recent letter to LAFCO, Mayor Robert E. Lewis said the city has a financial stake in what happens in Ventu Park.

“The Ventu Park area is an integral part of the Conejo Valley,” he said. Because the city provides roads, water and sewer connections in parts of Ventu Park, it “is culturally, socially and economically linked to the city of Thousand Oaks,” he said.

And Councilwoman Judy Lazar said there is more at stake in Ventu Park than just roads and sewers.

“The circle of open space and ridgeline is important to everybody here,” Lazar said. The city, she pointed out, does not interfere in development in Lake Sherwood or Hidden Valley because they lie outside the city’s sphere.

Rasnow’s “ridgeline is there. It is part of our view,” she said.

The request before LAFCO was touched off in part by a proposed county General Plan amendment that would restrict development in unincorporated areas next to Thousand Oaks. The plan was intended to protect environmentally sensitive areas, such as the hills.

Drafted by the county at Thousand Oaks’ request, the proposed amendment has angered many Ventu Park residents. The County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to review the proposal Jan. 28.

Ventu Park residents have taken issue with Thousand Oaks’ contention that they have much in common with city residents. They say they have more in common with rural Hidden Valley.

“The general sentiment in Ventu Park is that these people do not want to be saddled with the city of Thousand Oaks’ requirements,” said Tina Rasnow, an attorney who represents her father, Harman, and the three other Ventu Park property owners.

Many Ventu Park residents own farm animals and live in houses whose architectural styles, colors and materials differ from those of most developments in Thousand Oaks, she said.

The Rasnows’ property, on a highly visible ridge, is geographically isolated from neighbors’ properties in the valley, Tina Rasnow added.

It sits on a 1,600-foot peak that rises about 900 feet above most of the city. Except for the Rasnow home and another house in construction, there is no other development on the ridge.

“We have no business belonging in the sphere of influence because it will never be urban,” Tina Rasnow said.