Planning Commission Postpones New Vote on Adventist Proposal : Development: With one member still absent from illness, panel remains tied on church’s plan for regional shopping hub.

With one commissioner ill and the other four hopelessly deadlocked, the Planning Commission on Monday continued its discussion of a proposal to build a regional shopping hub in Newbury Park.

The commission let stand votes taken last week on the plans, submitted by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which ended with the commission split 2 to 2 on key elements of the proposal. According to the city attorney’s office, those tie votes count as non-actions, which left the commission free to vote again on the project.

Commissioner Joseph Gibson, who has missed several recent meetings because of complications from diabetes, said Monday afternoon that he hoped to attend the meeting to break the stalemate. After missing last week’s meeting, he said he was inclined to approve the project.

The commission delayed the start of its meeting in hopes that Gibson would show, but after a 20-minute wait, Chairwoman Marilyn Carpenter opened the hearing and said the commission would not vote again on the issue covered last week. She said Gibson “was not able to be here. Therefore, it makes no sense to reopen those hearings.”

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If the tie votes stand, the project would go forward to the City Council without any opinion from the commission. The council, which has final say on the project, is scheduled to discuss it Dec. 12.

Assistant City Atty. Nancy Schreiner said she could not recall another instance where the commission sent forward a project without a recommendation.

“It is strange,” she said.

Jere Wallack, a spokesman for the Southern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, said the church is eager to take its case to the City Council.

“I would never want to predict the council, but you can bet we have hopes they will see it differently,” he said. “There is nobody in this town that wants more beautiful buildings, that wants a project that the whole community can be proud of and that works, than we do. We’re not trying to foist some poorly planned project on the community.”

The proposal would create a 750,000-square-foot shopping complex--including a Target discount department store and a multiscreen movie theater--north of the Ventura Freeway at Wendy Drive. The church’s retirement housing and Newbury Park Adventist Academy, currently located on the site of the proposed 33-acre shopping center, would be demolished and rebuilt in open space about a half-mile to the north.

Mayor Jaime Zukowski said Monday that she did not know whether the council could reach a decision on the complex proposal in just one meeting.

“It’s a massive project and General Plan amendment, so I think it will be time-consuming,” she said.

Although Zukowski said she did not yet know how she would vote, aspects of the plan concerned her. “I have serious concerns in that, clearly, there are areas where it’s inconsistent with the General Plan.”

Planning commissioners have spent seven evenings beginning in September discussing the project, often quizzing consultants and debating proposed conditions past midnight.

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In January, a series of four marathon meetings on an earlier incarnation of the project ended with the commission voting to reject it. After cutting the amount of housing planned, church leaders then successfully lobbied the City Council to return the proposal to the Planning Commission with instructions to consider it before other development projects that also were waiting for approval.

Developers behind those other projects have been waiting to find out when their hearings would be held. Thomas McArthur had hoped the commission would consider his plans for a five-unit apartment complex on Royal Oaks Drive two weeks ago. Last week, commissioners postponed McArthur’s hearing until Dec. 4.

“I’ve never had a delay like this,” McArthur said. “If I know it’s going to take a year to get something approved for this city, I can plan for that. But if I don’t know, it comes like a sledgehammer to my head.

“All in all, it’s probably not a huge big deal, but it’s a big deal for me. It’s my money.”