Car Seller Bristles at Pressure to Repaint : Thousand Oaks: Planners say the Nesen Infiniti dealership must be coated in an earth tone to match the area’s color scheme.

Thousand Oaks city planners want Robert D. Nesen to repaint the white exterior of his auto dealership in an earth tone that will match the other brown and beige car dealerships on Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

But the 73-year-old Nesen says city officials are being too nit-picky and is refusing to change the color of his Infiniti dealership.

“It was much easier for me to sign an agreement between two countries than to paint a building in Thousand Oaks,” said Nesen, who served for five years as U.S. ambassador to Australia and two years as assistant secretary of the Navy.

“It’s off-white, anyway. I don’t know what they consider an earth tone,” he said. “I’ve been around the block, and I’ve never seen such a stupid bunch of bureaucrats.”

The Planning Commission has already given Nesen an order to repaint, but he has appealed that decision to the City Council. A hearing has not been scheduled.

Nesen said the color controversy has prompted threats from Infiniti headquarters to cancel his sales franchise if the building is painted any hue but white.

If his franchise is canceled, Nesen said he would have an empty $5-million building on his hands and the city would lose the sales tax.

City officials say Nesen is just being stubborn. His building was approved two years ago on the condition that he paint it an earth tone, City Planner Bob Rickards said.

The Planning Commission unanimously refused three months ago to let Nesen defy the earth-tone standard. Commissioners believed Nesen brought the problem on himself by changing the planned color scheme without telling the city, commission Chairman Andy Fox said.

“In my mind, a deal’s a deal,” Fox said. “Thousand Oaks is one of the most beautiful communities, and the reason is because we have these high standards. It’s important to be concerned without being too nit-picky.”

The Thousand Oaks auto center is home to 11 car dealers and 38 dealerships. Nesen owns the largest and one of the oldest dealerships in Ventura County.

He opened his first dealership in Oxnard in 1948, selling Oldsmobiles. Since then, he has added six others, moving his headquarters to Thousand Oaks 24 years ago.

With the exception of the Infiniti dealership, the Nesen Motor Car Co.’s operations are housed in coffee-colored buildings that border the Ventura Freeway.

Nesen won the Infiniti franchise two years ago, and he agreed to build according to the company’s strict specifications. The structure’s original painting plan called for two shades of gray, which met with city approval, said Nesen General Manager Dean Wilkinson.

Midway through construction, Infiniti required its dealerships to use white paint on the exterior. But the Nesen Co. did not file a color-change request because of the tight construction deadline, Wilkinson said.

By the time the building opened in November, 1990, Wilkinson believed the color change was not a problem. The result won raves from Infiniti headquarters and nearby dealers.

“The dealership the Nesens have built is beautiful,” said Sid Hamilton, owner of Courtesy Chevrolet.

The economic downturn has created tough times for all auto dealers, and many are trying to comply with franchise requirements imposed by car companies, said Hamilton.

Hamilton said if Chevrolet had demanded that his building be painted white, he also would have complied.

“I think a dealer, within limits, should be able to paint his dealership whatever he likes,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nesen said the city is being hypocritical. When city officials designed the Thousand Oaks Library nine years ago, they also painted it white.

“I’m not going to repaint it until they repaint the library,” he said.