Council to Consider 273-Home Development

Dozens of angry citizens are expected to show up Tuesday at the Civic Arts Plaza when the City Council takes up Woodridge, a 273-home development proposed for the rugged, hilly area between the city’s north border and Simi Valley.

Council is set to decide whether to annex 743 acres currently in Ventura County’s jurisdiction and rezone it for residential development. The city’s Planning Commission voted 3 to 2 to do so in July.

As planned, the homes would all be built on roughly 85 acres on the west end of the property. Thirty-three acres would be set aside as a buffer, and the remainder of the land would be donated by developer Woodridge Associates to Thousand Oaks as permanent open space.

Opponents of the development say that most of the land Woodridge Associates plans to give to the city is not suitable for development anyway because it is so rugged. They contend the project constitutes urban sprawl because it would nearly fill in the remaining open space between Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.