Thousand Oaks OKs Changes in Affordable-Housing Proposal

THOUSAND OAKS — The City Council has agreed to changes in an affordable-housing proposal that allow the project to proceed without voters’ approval.

Many Mansions, a nonprofit housing group, asked the city to designate its Village Inn development a “public lands” project, rather than a residential use that would have been subject to the balloting requirements of the city’s growth-control law, Measure E.

After hearing an hour of impassioned testimony Tuesday night from the disabled, homeless, activists and others, the council unanimously approved the requested changes in the project to convert a motel into studio apartments and a community center.

The council decided the addition of a police substation, job-training classes and services for the developmentally disabled made the Village Inn more than just a residential housing project.

The council deemed the proposal a quasi-public project, approved city purchase of the land under the motel and agreed to switch the zoning from commercial to “public lands.”

Before the vote, residents, including Susan Marks, talked about how desperately needed affordable studio apartments are in Thousand Oaks. Living on disability payments, Marks now lives in motels on the nights she has enough cash for a room.

On Tuesday night she told the council she had been without sleep or a shower for the past five days and had essentially been staying at a Denny’s restaurant, nursing coffee.

“Things are so bad,” Marks told the five council members, “I hate to say this, but I’m hoping something will happen to me so I can go to a hospital and get some sleep and some shower and not have to live like this anymore. . . . Please, please do this.”

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Moved to tears, Councilwoman Judy Lazar introduced the motion to support the renovation, which garnered support from council members who had once criticized the proposal, saying it skirted the provisions of the slow-growth Measure E.

After the 11:15 p.m. vote, about two dozen people in the Forum Theater applauded the council members, and Marks turned to a Many Mansions official and gave her a hug.

While the City Council agreed to grant the property “public lands” zoning, approval of a special-use permit for the project is still subject to Planning Commission review.

The elected officials also consented to spend up to $1.3 million to purchase the land in the 1400 block of Thousand Oaks Boulevard. That money, which would serve as the city’s commitment to the project, had already been conceptually approved in February.

As envisioned, the 60-unit motel would be converted into an apartment complex with 50 studios renting for less than $400 a month. Another 10 spaces would be set aside for community organizations such as the Waverly Adult School, Lutheran Social Services and Villa Esperanza to teach classes, provide counseling and offer services to the disabled.

Before the meeting, support for the Many Mansions project appeared shaky because Councilwomen Linda Parks and Elois Zeanah were concerned that it might not fit the public-lands criteria.

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Without that designation, the project would have gone before voters under the provisions of Measure E, approved in 1996.

Parks first quizzed Many Mansions staff members on the availability of parking, and suggested the hotel’s lower units be set aside for senior citizens and the disabled before she endorsed the concept.

“I applaud Many Mansions . . . for making this an innovative new model” of affordable housing and services, Parks said. “We’re not going to just have 60 high-density units here.”

After being reassured by the deputy city attorney that the project would not set a precedent for new housing developments on public lands, Zeanah also voted yes.