Thousand Oaks : Deputies Cracking Down on Drinking at Housing Complex

Nearly four months after the Thousand Oaks City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting drinking on some private property, sheriff’s deputies are starting to use it to crack down on a housing complex--the Las Casitas condominium tract in Newbury Park--that the city regards as a major nuisance.

“We’ve been wanting to let the ordinance sink in a little bit before using it in an aggressive manner,” said Sgt. Bruce Hansen, supervisor of the crime prevention unit for the east county.

The complex, off Hillcrest Drive near Ventu Park Road, is the most overcrowded tract in Thousand Oaks. Hansen said that although serious crime rates there are low, Las Casitas is the city’s biggest source of complaints for nuisances such as excessive noise, parties and drinking.

“It makes the quality of life tough. There’s a lot of music, people drinking, throwing their bottles on the ground, getting glass on the common areas. This goes on an awful lot,” Hansen said.

He said that during a recent 60-day period police received 88 complaints concerning disturbances over music, noise, drinking and other problems.

Five burglaries and one robbery were reported in the same period, which Hansen said was low for the number of residents.

The drinking ordinance applies to all of Thousand Oaks but was designed to address the problems at Las Casitas. The ordinance bans drinking on private property open to public view without the permission of the property owner. Hansen said the ordinance applies to such areas as a greenbelt or the carports used by condominium residents.

“There’s no other identified trouble spots with this problem in the city,” Hansen said.

Gina Lane, who belongs to the Las Casitas Neighborhood Watch, said the Sheriff’s Department has responded to the residents’ concerns with stepped-up patrols.

She called the ordinance “a blessing in disguise, because we have so many people who loiter and drink and then the drinking goes on to bigger and better things.”