New Building OKd at Shopping Plaza

A retail building set to house Blockbuster Video, Noah’s Bagels and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf specialty food store won approval from the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission early Tuesday.

In a 3-2 vote, planning commissioners approved construction of an 8,900-square-foot commercial building within the Oakbrook Shopping Plaza at Avenida de los Arboles and Erbes Road.

The project was supported by two nearby homeowners associations, which said the project’s developer, James Ashton, had submitted a proposal that would improve their neighborhoods.

Both the Oakbrook Community Homeowners Assn. and Woodlands Homeowners Assn. stated in letters to the Planning Commission that they welcomed the new building. The Oakbrook group said it hoped the new stores would encourage other nearby retail property owners to upgrade their buildings.

Commissioners Marilyn Carpenter and Dave Anderson voted against the project.

Carpenter said Tuesday afternoon that she believes the project might increase traffic congestion in the shopping plaza, especially because it has a video rental store.

The project calls for 18 parking spaces at the new building, with additional spaces within the center available to shoppers.

“The internal [traffic] circulation in that center has been a concern,” Carpenter said. “I’m not sure that was adequately addressed.”