Incoming Planners Face Thousand Oaks in Transition : Development: Two new members, who will start next week, are likely to focus on ‘in-fill’ projects that are potentially controversial.

Quietly plotting the changing landscape of Thousand Oaks, the Planning Commission has devoted hundreds of hours over the past two years to ensure that the city is designed as thoughtfully as any of its plush, gated neighborhoods.

Now, with the city’s last major housing developments approved for construction, planning experts say the new commissioners who take over next week will spend their four-year terms focusing inward--not on expansion, but on redevelopment.

“The city is definitely reaching a point of transition,” said Phil Gatch, the city’s director of planning. “The new focus is going to be on in-fill projects, and those may not be as large. But they definitely have the potential to be controversial.”

New residential development will come in two forms, Gatch said. Included will be townhome or condominium projects in depressed areas, such as the Groves project near Hampshire Road. Or there will be projects on land previously ignored because the parcels had steep slopes, ridgelines or other environmental drawbacks, he said.

Commissioners will be tested by the necessity to balance the city’s ongoing needs against the financial advantage of allowing marginal commercial projects. Typically, money for road improvements, schools and other amenities has come from housing projects, but that will dry up as the city is built out--which is predicted by 2010.

Commissioners said they will be forced to weigh requests for shopping centers and strip malls on the city’s outskirts against the need to rejuvenate Thousand Oaks Boulevard, once the area’s major commercial thoroughfare.

“I hope to see the new commission lead us through a period of positive, responsible growth,” said Councilman Andy Fox, a former planning commissioner. “They’re going to need to think about bringing jobs and money into the city, keeping Thousand Oaks viable.”

To that end, the city over the past four years approved several major projects with thousand of houses, including the massive tracts of Lang Ranch, Dos Vientos and Shapell Industries. And they allowed substantial new commercial and industrial ventures, including the expansion of Amgen Inc. by more than 1 million square feet and a major refurbishment of Janss Mall.

Commissioners recently rejected part of the $100-million Seventh-day Adventist project. If passed, it would bring another major shopping center--with a Target and multiscreen movie house--to the western edge of the city.

“We’ve done some substantial work in the past four years,” said Planning Commission Chairman Irving Wasserman, who will step down in a week. “We heard more than 400 cases, many of which were extremely important to the way this city will look in the future.”

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Now, several commissioners said, the planning body will face the tricky task of deciding which remaining parcels to develop and which to leave vacant.

Gatch said several controversial commercial projects are likely to come forward in the next year, including shopping centers at Moorpark Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard, and Westlake and Thousand Oaks boulevards.

“The parcels we are going to be talking about are the ones that are in plain view,” said Commissioner Linda Parks, who is midway through her term.

“The tough parcels are all that’s left,” she said. “And people are going to come out of the woodwork to try and develop them.”

For instance, she says, the development of Newbury Park property owned by developer Nedjatollah Cohan was approved by the commission in 1992 despite concerns that the land was environmentally important.

Debate over development on that 44 acres of rolling grassland along Reino Road was fierce, because nearby property owners wanted to keep the land pristine. Construction would harm nearby wetlands, they argued.

Ronald Polanski, a Thousand Oaks stockbroker who will join the commission next week, said he sees decisions on projects such as Cohan’s as straightforward.

“If these projects meet the codes and the guidelines set forth in the General Plan, I don’t see that there should even be an argument,” he said. “I don’t think we have any choice but to approve them.”

But Parks said each case should be looked at carefully to determine how projects affect their neighbors.

It is finding a balance between the rights of property owners and the rights of neighboring residents that will be the most trying task as the commission debates projects for neighborhoods that are already crowded.

“There is going to be a lot of pressure for these commissioners to split over these issues,” Wasserman said. “The threat to the commission is that disagreement on these fundamental issues will divide the commission along political lines, just like the council.”

He said there will be pressure on Parks and Commissioner Marilyn Carpenter to adhere to the slow-growth political platforms of the council members who appointed them, Elois Zeanah and Jaime Zukowski.

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And, he said, there is likely to be pressure placed on the two new commissioners, Polanski and environmental consultant Joseph Gibson, to favor a more business and growth-oriented agenda.

“The commissioners, I’m sure, have all been told they can be independent thinkers. But as the stakes get higher on the council, that becomes more and more difficult,” Wasserman said. “The first time a commissioner votes against their council person, they’re going to find trouble.”

But Polanski and Gibson said they do not see that as a problem. They said the commission will not become home to political infighting.

“I think we need to put our emotions aside and rule on the facts of each case that comes before us,” Polanski said. “If we stay away from emotional issues, we should be able to work productively together.”

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Planning Decisions at a Glance Major decisions over the past three years by the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission composed of Irving Wasserman, Marilyn Carpenter, Forrest Frields and Mervyn Kopp--with Linda Parks joining the commission in 1993:

April 6, 1992--Commissioners reject plans for the Civic Arts Plaza tower, saying it is too tall. The decision is overturned by the City Council.

July 1, 1992--After 10 years of haggling, developer Nedjatollah Cohan rejoices over commission approval of his 44-acre Newbury Park project. The decision is overturned by the council.

Oct. 13, 1993--Commissioners heed residents’ complaints and refuse to allow a tall Thousand Oaks Auto Mall sign next to the Ventura Freeway. After brokering a compromise, the council overturns the ruling.

Feb. 16, 1994--Major additions to Amgen Inc.’s Newbury Park headquarters are approved with some height restrictions. The council lifts the restrictions and approves the expansion plan.

March 16, 1994--Commissioners approve an overhaul of Janss Mall. The council agrees.

Dec. 12, 1994--Following a court order, commissioners approve the Lang Ranch flood control basin despite indications that it will uproot as many as 140 mature oak trees. The project is before the council, but may be returned for further environmental study.

Jan. 10, 1995--Commissioners reject plans for a $100-million commercial complex and school planned by the Seventh-day Adventist church. Portions of the project, with revisions, will return to the commission this year.

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Projects expected to be considered by the new Planning Commission composed of Parks, Frields, Carpenter and new Commissioners Ronald Polanski and Joseph Gibson:

* The revised Seventh-day Adventist project planned for Wendy Drive north of the Ventura Freeway.

* A small shopping center at the triangular lot at Moorpark Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

* A shopping center proposed for Westlake and Thousand Oaks boulevards, across from where a shopping mall was rejected by the city in 1991.