Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Capital Improvement Program topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Thousand Oaks Planning Commission finds proposed capital improvement program consistent with general plan
Summary
On April 7, 2025, the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission voted 4-0 to find the city's proposed two-year capital improvement program consistent with the Thousand Oaks General Plan and to determine the CIP is not a project under CEQA; the finding will be forwarded to City Council.
Thousand Oaks, Calif. — The Thousand Oaks Planning Commission voted 4-0 on April 7, 2025, to find the proposed Capital Improvement Program for fiscal years 2025–26 and 2026–27 consistent with the Thousand Oaks General Plan and to determine the CIP is not a project subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act. The commission's finding will be transmitted to the City Council for its consideration at the council's budget study session and later CIP adoption.
The staff presentation, led by Senior Planner Scott Kollwitz and supported by Public Works and finance staff, said the two-year CIP includes 147 projects totaling about $160,000,000 and that 271 projects are planned over five years at roughly $538,000,000. Staff described projects organized in 11 categories, including facilities, housing, landscaping and streetscape, libraries, open space, stormwater, streets, transportation and traffic, undergrounding of utilities, wastewater, and water system improvements.
Staff told commissioners that key facilities work will occur at the Civic Arts Plaza, the Teen and Adult Centers, the Transit Center, Los Robles Greens Golf Course and the Municipal Service Center. Housing-related entries include support for permanent supportive housing, the navigation center and contributions to a local land trust. Transportation-related items include class 1 bike lanes, bus shelter enhancements, purchase of electric dial-a-ride vans and electric buses, traffic-signal upgrades, freeway interchange work, and active-transportation improvements. Library projects listed battery energy storage and electric-vehicle charging installations. Stormwater work includes local flooding studies, pipe and channel repairs, pollutant diversion structures and slope stabilization.
Commissioners asked staff for clarifications on several projects. Deputy Public Works Director Nader Hidari said the South Branch Arroyo Conejo Drainage Improvements project (listed in materials as CI 5807) is a multi-jurisdictional effort: the city leads studies and improvements within Thousand Oaks city limits, while improvements in unincorporated Ventura County would be carried out by the county in coordination with Ventura County Watershed Protection Agency. Staff noted the CIP project sheet for the South Branch Arroyo Canal Drainage Improvement (project number cited in the staff report) will be corrected in the SIP book to reference the safety element rather than the mobility element.
Hidari also described Oakwood Drive improvements as a west-of-the-City-Hall parking-structure project that could include curb, gutter, sidewalks, drainage, roadway widening, utility undergrounding and street lighting; staff said Oakwood Drive work is in early design and will be coordinated with the larger downtown redevelopment project. Commissioners asked about a monument and geographic information system benchmark project for the Thousand Oaks Boulevard corridor and Hillcrest Drive; staff said the effort will reestablish survey monuments and GIS benchmarks to reduce delays and costs in future entitlement and redevelopment work.
Staff advised that the Planning Commission's consistency determination report is not itself a CEQA project because the CIP is a government funding document and does not commit the city to specific projects; environmental review, staff said, will be performed for each individual project if and when it proceeds to construction.
After discussion, a commissioner moved to find the CIP not a project under CEQA and to adopt a resolution reporting that the proposed CIP for FY2025–26 and FY2026–27 is consistent with the Thousand Oaks General Plan, forwarding the finding to the City Council. The motion passed by roll call, with Commissioners Lanson, McMahon, Vice Chair Tyler Kettlehut and Chair Farris voting yes. Commissioner Buss was absent.
The commission's action is advisory; the City Council will consider the CIP and staff-corrections to the SIP materials during upcoming budget and adoption hearings, including an updated reference to the safety element for the noted drainage project.
