Boulevard Rejuvenation Stuck in Slow Lane

THOUSAND OAKS — City leaders long ago declared it a blighted business sector in dire need of redevelopment.

Countless committees and studies have outlined ways to make it prettier and friendlier to pedestrians--more like Pasadena’s Old Town and less like the San Fernando Valley’s Ventura Boulevard.

But for the most part, Thousand Oaks Boulevard, this city’s first commercial district, has remained the same throughout the past decade as new shopping centers such as the Promenade at Westlake have cropped up on the outskirts of town.

And the debate over how to improve the four-mile corridor, which constitutes the heart of the city, continues to divide many of the merchants who do business there.

“I think there’s a common understanding that Thousand Oaks Boulevard is in the process of dying,” said Russ Goodenough, chairman of the Mayor’s Business Roundtable, which has been pondering ways to spruce up the street for years. “Something needs to be done, and something needs to be done soon.”

The problem for the city is that not everyone believes Thousand Oaks Boulevard needs a government-sponsored face-lift--or a major face-lift of any kind, for that matter.

Many merchants say that although Thousand Oaks Boulevard could use some improvements, such as lower speed limits, larger signs and more parking, it would be foolish to try to turn a strip of family restaurants, plumbing shops and furniture stores into a Santa Barbara-like tourist spot.

“They put a diamond in the middle of town,” said Dennis Carlson of Carlson Building Supplies, “and now they want to surround it with a bunch of sapphires.”

The diamond Carlson refers to is the Civic Arts Plaza, the $86-million City Hall and performing arts center built on Thousand Oaks Boulevard three years ago--partly paid for with bonds issued by the city’s downtown Redevelopment Agency.

The City Council created the agency in 1979 to beautify the hodgepodge of businesses along Thousand Oaks Boulevard, but much of the tax money it collects every year now goes to pay off the Civic Arts Plaza bonds instead.

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Thousand Oaks Finance Director Bob Biery will meet with the Mayor’s Business Roundtable at 8 a.m. Tuesday in the Civic Arts Plaza’s Board Room to discuss how much money the Redevelopment Agency has to spend on Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

“There’s not a lot of money to do things on the boulevard right now,” said Mayor Andy Fox. “As far as Redevelopment Agency financing, there isn’t enough money available to conduct any kind of major redevelopment project.”

There may not be much city money to spur change, but Fox said that property owners and merchants along Thousand Oaks Boulevard need to continue talking about a unified approach to make the street better. He said a proposed joint effort of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor’s Business Roundtable to gather thoughts from merchants is a good idea.

“You have mixed feelings out there right now,” said Fox, who has spent a lot of time walking the boulevard and talking to shop owners. “You have everything from people who want the status quo to people who want trolleys and a downtown like Carmel. I don’t think either of those extremes is realistic.

“The important point that needs to be emphasized is that it’s not what the city wants, it’s what the community wants on Thousand Oaks Boulevard,” he added. “Change is not necessarily bad.”

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For Carlson, whose family opened Carlson Building Supplies 50 years ago, talk of a need to fix up Thousand Oaks Boulevard seems like deja vu.

In the 1950s the idea was to turn the street into a mini-Scottsdale, with an Old West motif, he said. The 1960s brought so-called modern architecture, typified by the former look of the nearby Janss Mall. And the 1970s brought an invasion of red-tiled roofs and Spanish architecture. That eclectic mixture makes up the current boulevard.

Carlson has seen the city grow up around his family’s business. But he wonders whether his business and others like it fit into the city’s plans for the future.

“Everybody thinks the Civic Arts Plaza is this great draw for business, but it only seats 1,800 people,” Carlson said. “How many businesses can it support? To think you’re going to go to a theater and pick up knickknacks and silver spoons is pretty unrealistic. Thousand Oaks isn’t Solvang.

“We’re the bricks and mortar of Thousand Oaks,” he said of his business. “What are they going to build here? Another 1,800-seat theater? We’ve got that. More movie theaters and coffee shops? I’m not sure we need any more.”

Architect Francisco Behr, a member of the Mayor’s Business Roundtable and one of the leading advocates of the revitalization, said the idea is to help existing businesses look better and make more money, not to drive any of them out.

He said Thousand Oaks Boulevard is already beginning to see signs of strip mall saturation, and that if those who are wary of government efforts would join his cause, they would see there were no ulterior motives at work.

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“If anything, we’re trying to help the businesses that are already there, and it’s really sad that some of them don’t see it that way,” Behr said. “They have been one of the reasons this has not moved forward.

“In some ways, we’ve missed some great opportunities,” he added. “And I hate to admit it, but some of the things we wanted to avoid have already started to happen, unfortunately.”

Formerly known as Ventura Boulevard, Thousand Oaks Boulevard was one of the city’s first streets, a dusty two-lane byway lined with eucalyptus trees that started at the Ventura County line and headed west into cattle country. In fact, it predates by several decades the city of Thousand Oaks, which was not incorporated until 1964.

As late as the 1960s, ranchers could still hitch their horses to posts on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, which was perhaps best known as the site of Jungleland. Until it closed in the mid-1960s, the Jungleland wild animal park supplied Hollywood with many of its movie animals, including Leo the Lion, who appears at the beginning of every Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film. It is now the site of the Civic Arts Plaza.

In 1967 and 1968, city officials widened Thousand Oaks Boulevard to four lanes. That eased traffic, but eliminated much of the street parking, leading to a shortage of spaces that still causes problems today.

Many merchants complain that cars parked along the boulevard--especially the increasingly popular minivans and sport-utility vehicles--make it difficult for patrons to safely pull out of their lots. They also say that the cars sometimes prevent potential customers from even noticing their businesses are there.

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The Mayor’s Business Roundtable recently proposed relaxing the city’s strict sign ordinance to allow for larger, more colorful business signs and strip mall directories--one of many such attempts in recent years. But the City Council tabled the proposal, and it has yet to resurface.

Robin Westmiller, owner of the Paper Depot stationery store, said that instead of focusing on improving traffic and visibility for businesses on the boulevard, Thousand Oaks officials are busy pursuing what she sees as pipe dreams of a pedestrian-friendly downtown.

“You can’t turn something into something it’s not,” Westmiller said. “People are not going to get out of their cars and walk down the boulevard. It’s never going to happen.”

Westmiller said customers often have trouble getting in and out of her business because of crowded parking for nearby Roxy’s Deli. She said she has asked the city to do something to improve the situation for both businesses, but has not received even a letter in response.

“The amount of nonsupport this city has shown to its business community is incredible,” she said. “And it’s not just to little guys. It’s the big retailers too.”

It may not have been enough to satisfy some merchants, but in fact, Thousand Oaks has spent about $15 million in the past two decades to modernize Thousand Oaks Boulevard. The city has put in new storm drains, buried utility lines, added parking in places, increased firefighting capacity along the boulevard, and fixed and installed sidewalks. It is in the process of repaving much of the street.

“To me, one of the key roles of the city is to make sure the infrastructure the boulevard needs to fulfill its destiny is there,” said City Manager Grant Brimhall. “As a result of that, a lot of money has been spent to put that infrastructure in place.”

By relocating City Hall to Thousand Oaks Boulevard with the Civic Arts Plaza, the city has also provided the impetus for a transformation on at least part of the street. City officials are talking with backers of a proposed children’s science museum about locating next to the building.

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And the city is working with developer Kilroy Industries on a plan to build a major movie theater and restaurant complex on the city-owned land beside the Civic Arts Plaza, although project negotiations have taken much longer than expected.

Goodenough, the owner of the Cal-U-Rent equipment rental business, said backers of revitalization are confident that with the Civic Arts Plaza, the central part of Thousand Oaks Boulevard should take care of itself.

He believes there is no harm in talking about ways to make Thousand Oaks Boulevard more like Old Town Pasadena or Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade. But without the participation of more merchants, landowners and residents, even more humble efforts to improve the business corridor will fail, he said.

Goodenough is one of the founders of the West Boulevard Business Group, a loose-knit bunch of about 20 merchants from the area between Moorpark Road and the Moorpark Freeway who have begun meeting to discuss what they can do to fix up their piece of the street.

With the city’s help, they would like to build a parking lot atop the wash behind their businesses. And they have talked about converting a polluted former gas station site into a small park.

“We need to hear from everybody, and it’s going to take awhile to get the answer to this problem on the boulevard,” Goodenough said. “What we’ve tried to do on our end of the boulevard is to meet and talk about our needs, because they’re a little different from those of everyone else.”

What Dave Gulbranson, owner of Oakstone Glass, has taken from the meetings is the idea that merchants have to stop waiting for the city to solve problems and come up with solutions of their own.

He said merchants need the city’s help on some issues, such as the public parking lot, but that much of what needs to take place on Thousand Oaks Boulevard is strictly up to the property owners.

“Some people who don’t follow the city feel that we’ve been ignored,” Gulbranson said. “But others, including myself, believe this is an aging area, and merchants need to take some responsibility for the way their stores look. Merchants need to get off their duff and do something now.”

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Brimhall believes it is “heartwarming” to see merchant-led efforts such as the West Boulevard Business Group, which is now trying to encourage similar groups in other parts of Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

But he believes any united approach to improve the street will--and should--take a long time to come together.

“It can’t, and shouldn’t in all probability, move fast,” Brimhall said of the revitalization effort. “The boulevard’s been here a long time, and it’s going to be here a long time. You need consensus, because otherwise, the results are not going to be accepted.”