THOUSAND OAKS : Planners May Vote on Church’s Project

The Thousand Oaks Planning Commission could reach a key decision today on a massive proposed development in Newbury Park north of the Ventura Freeway.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s proposal, which would create a shopping center at Wendy Drive and a campus with a school and housing in nearby open space, has been the subject of several meetings and could come up for a vote today.

Commissioner Linda Parks said much discussion remains on the project. “It could come to a vote,” she said. “It depends on how solid the proposal is and how solid the Planning Commission feels it is.”

Commissioners have already taken testimony from the plan’s architects, pored over diagrams and scale models, walked around the undeveloped space where the school would be built and listened to a report on the project’s potential impact on the local economy.

Nor is this the project’s first trip through the approval process. In January, the commission rejected key portions of the plan. Church officials then withdrew the project, reduced the amount of housing proposed and resubmitted it to the Planning Commission.