TO:Andrew P. Powers, City Manager
FROM:Kelvin Parker, Community Development Director
DATE:July 8, 2025
SUBJECT: Downtown Thousand Oaks General Plan Amendment Initiation, Concurrent Processing Request, and Declaration of Surplus Lands
RECOMMENDATION:
1. Adopt resolution declaring the intention to consider an amendment to the Land Use Element of the General Plan for certain City-owned property, directing staff to study and propose possible refinements to the land use designations applied to the proposed project area as needed, allowing concurrent processing of the legislative action and project entitlements for the proposed Downtown Thousand Oaks project, and finding that such declaration does not constitute a project as defined under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Section 15378 of the CEQA Guidelines; however, even if the actions contemplated herein constituted a project, the actions are exempt under Section 15061(b)(3).
2. Adopt resolution declaring that pursuant to Government Code Section 54221, portions of certain real property located at Assessor Parcel Numbers (APNs) 670- 018-1110, 670-018-1270, 670-018-1260, 670-018-1250, and 671-024-0450 are non-exempt surplus land, approving the requisite notice of availability, authorizing the City Manager to take any other required steps to comply with the Surplus Land Act for said parcels, and finding that such declaration is exempt from environmental review under CEQA pursuant to Sections 15060(c) and 15312 of the CEQA guidelines.
3. Adopt resolution declaring that pursuant to Government Code Section 54221, a portion of that certain real property comprised of 0.17 acres and located at APN 671-024-0450 is exempt surplus land and finding that such action does not qualify as a “project” as defined in CEQA Guidelines section 15378; however, even if the actions contemplated herein constituted a project, the actions are exempt under Section 15061(b)(3).
LEVINE ACT ITEM: No
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FINANCIAL IMPACT:
No Additional Funding Requested. Minimal staff time required to prepare the report is included in the Adopted FY 2025-26 General Fund Budget.
BACKGROUND:
The proposed Downtown Thousand Oaks project area (Attachments Nos. 1-3) includes the former Jungleland property, which was the site of a safari-themed amusement park that closed in 1969. In 1982, the City's General Plan Review Committee recommended a combination of mixed commercial and residential uses for the “Jungleland” area within a height overlay zoning district, with the objectives of eliminating blighting influences, stimulating development, and improving the economic and cultural environment of the area.
Following that City Council recommendation, the Civic Arts Plaza Specific Plan/Specific Plan No. 11 (CAPSP) was adopted in September 1989.
The CAPSP encompasses approximately 27 acres at the southwest corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Conejo School Road. Located within the predominantly commercial corridor of Thousand Oaks Boulevard, the plan area is currently designated for commercial, mixed-use, institutional, and parks and open space land uses in the Thousand Oaks General Plan. The boundaries of the CAPSP area are shown in Figure 1. The proposed project area is contained entirely within the CAPSP except for a portion of the property at 1868 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard.
Figure 1 – Current CAPSP Sub-Areas
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The CAPSP has been amended six times since 1989 to revise certain standards, expand the specific plan area, and accommodate the Civic Arts Plaza construction adjacent development know as “The Lakes”. In line with the original City Council vision for the area, the primary goal of the CAPSP, since its adoption, has been to develop a distinctive, high-quality downtown that serves as a centerpiece for Thousand Oaks and the Conejo Valley, while stimulating economic growth and revitalization in the area, emphasizing the importance of fostering a dynamic and attractive downtown environment.
Further advancing that 1982 City Council goal, and the larger vision for a robust downtown described in the Thousand Oaks Boulevard Specific Plan (SP No. 20), (developed from 2005 to 2011), the City Council set a City Council priority to “Begin Development of Downtown Thousand Oaks” on May 9, 2017, and adopted the Downtown Core Master Plan (DCMP) on June 5, 2018. The DCMP established a vision for the downtown core and identified the initiatives the City should pursue to create an active, pedestrian-friendly area. Over the past several years, advancing the creation of a Thousand Oaks Downtown has consistently been one of City Council’s Top 10 Priorities, including for FY 2025-26.
On December 5, 2023, City Council adopted the 2045 General Plan, which included specific guidance, including goals and policies, for certain areas of the community called sub-areas. The project area is part of the larger Downtown Sub- Area, as seen in Figure 2. Goals and policies within the Downtown Sub-Area include implementing the vision and specific strategies in the DCMP, redesigning the Civic Arts Plaza, developing the City-owned Westside Property, facilitating the building of a boutique hotel, and promoting a mix of uses to encourage economic vibrancy.
Building on conceptual plans prepared in 2019 and 2023 at the direction of City Council, on December 3, 2024, RRM Design Group (RRM), in partnership with SmithGroup, was awarded a professional services agreement to complete preliminary design of the Downtown Thousand Oaks project. The project to be proposed includes four mixed-use residential buildings, a standalone restaurant, adaptive reuse of the western portion of the existing City Hall, targeted construction of the eastern portion of City Hall, and a hotel with a rooftop deck. Additionally, the program includes a variety of outdoor spaces such as an outdoor amphitheater, a pedestrian-only Main Street, and a town square with children’s play areas.
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Figure 2: General Plan Land Use Element Sub-Area – Downtown Existing Land Use Designations
Following several months of work on the preliminary design for the Thousand Oaks Downtown project, a City Council workshop to hear updates on the progress was held on June 24, 2025. At that meeting, City Council directed staff to return with the initiation of a General Plan Amendment (GPA) and to prepare additional areas as available for surplus, as needed to achieve the project as currently envisioned.
Per this direction, on July 1, 2025, RRM submitted an application for a GPA and a request for concurrent processing of all other entitlement applications on behalf of the City (described below).
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DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS:
Initiation of General Plan Amendment
The Thousand Oaks Municipal Code (TOMC) Sec. 9-2.202(b)(1) requires that City Council adopt a resolution initiating General Plan amendments prior to processing the formal application (Attachment #4). This allows screening of Land Use Element amendment requests to determine whether they warrant further consideration. If City Council initiates the request, the applicant (in this case, the City itself) will be allowed to submit entitlement applications for evaluation of the proposed project.
Prior to returning to City Council for final action, the concept will be subject to formal entitlement application review, consideration of compliance with CEQA, public outreach, and public hearings before the Planning Commission and City Council. If City Council decides not to initiate the GPA, then the matter will receive no further consideration.
In addition, TOMC Sec. 9-4.2802(d) allows City Council to authorize concurrent processing of entitlement applications in conjunction with legislative actions to provide a comprehensive review of a development proposal. Processing of legislative actions and entitlements together enables the concept to be evaluated comprehensively, rather than sequentially. If such processing is not granted, then the applicant would need to process the legislative matters first, followed by the project entitlements. Only City Council can approve concurrent processing when legislative actions are required.
As described above, General Plan 2045, the DCMP, existing CAPSP, and City Council priorities set over the last decade have consistently outlined a vision of civic, artistic, and economic vitality for the project area. In order to fulfill that vision, a General Plan amendment to change a portion of the Civic Arts Plaza Specific Plan area from being designated for Institutional uses to Mixed-Use is necessary, as housing, private commercial, and hotel uses are to be proposed. In addition, during the review of the proposed development, staff will study and confirm whether refinements to the land use designation applied to the proposed project area are necessary to support implementation of the project.
Surplus Land Declaration
When disposing of surplus lands, the Surplus Land Act (SLA) requires all local agencies to first make those lands available to other public agencies and affordable housing developers via notification. Before a local agency takes any action to dispose of land, the land must be declared either “non-exempt surplus land” subject to the notification of availability requirements of SLA, which includes providing written notice to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and specified entities. If land is declared “exempt surplus Downtown Project GPA Initiation and Surplus Land Declarations July 8, 2025
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land,” the City is not required to issue a notice of availability but must report the exemption to HCD for review and confirmation. Additionally, HCD recommends that staff submit the draft resolution for review at least 30 days before disposition.
On June 18, 2024, City Council authorized the notice of land considered public surplus at the Westside parcel (Attachment #5) and the City issued the required 60-Day notice, in compliance with the SLA. Notices of availability were sent to all applicable agencies on July 2, 2024, and no formal requests to negotiate were received. The parcels previously made available for surplus were reflective of the City Council-endorsed 2024 conceptual site plan.
At the June 24, 2025, City Council workshop, staff received direction to prepare additional areas as available for surplus, consistent with the updated 2025 site plan (Attachment #6). The additional SLA areas are the result of introducing a new mixed-use Building C, a restaurant at Building D, and the hotel at Building H, which were previously earmarked for institutional use.
The table below summarizes the areas that are recommended to be declared as non-exempt surplus land and must be advertised as available per the SLA. A map outlining the parcels below is shown in Attachment #7, along with the required resolution declaring the areas as non-exempt surplus. With the exception of 1996 E Thousand Oaks Boulevard, the areas recommended for surplus are only portions of the parcel for each APN shown in the table.
APN Street Address Acreage
Right-of-Way West of 1964 E Thousand Oaks Blvd. .35
670-018-1110 1964 E Thousand Oaks Blvd. .42
670-018-1270 1996 E Thousand Oaks Blvd. .24
670-018-1260 1998 E Thousand Oaks Blvd. .16
670-018-1250 2026 E Thousand Oaks Blvd. .41
671-024-0450 2100 E Thousand Oaks Blvd. .12
Total 1.70
The restaurant located at Building D in the program qualifies under the “small parcel” exemption in the SLA. Although the exemption applies, and no notice of availability is required, City Council must adopt a resolution (Attachment #8) declaring it an exempt surplus parcel. A map of the exempt area for Building D is appended to the attached resolution.
APN Street Address Acreage
671-024-0450 2100 E Thousand Oaks Blvd. .17
Pending City Council’s authorization of the declarations of exempt and non-exempt surplus lands, staff will prepare the required notice of availability and publish in accordance with the SLA.
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Next Steps
The initiation of the GPA and concurrent processing would only authorize City staff to proceed with the filing of formal project entitlement applications. Any action by City Council to initiate review does not guarantee final approval of the project, nor imply that the concept shown in previous public workshops and events will be brought back to City Council with the exact same design, as development concepts are often modified slightly during the City’s normal review process.
The conceptual Downtown Thousand Oaks project is expected to require the following additional entitlements to be approved by City Council, following recommendation by the Planning Commission:
•Specific Plan Amendment – to update Specific Plan No. 11 (Civic Arts Plaza Specific Plan) to incorporate standards and requirements for the Downtown Thousand Oaks project;
•Development Permit-Major Modification – to allow the modification of the existing Civic Arts Plaza development;
•Development Permit – to allow the construction of new mixed-use, civic, and commercial buildings;
•Tentative or Parcel Map – to redraw property lines as appropriate; and •Protected Tree Permit – to evaluate the potential removal of and encroachment onto protected trees.
The entire project, including the General Plan amendment, along with all related entitlements, will be reviewed for compliance with CEQA and evaluated by all relevant agencies and departments. Following this review, a staff report will be prepared and presented to the Planning Commission at a public hearing. The Planning Commission will consider the project and provide a recommendation to City Council, which will then hold its own public hearing and take final action on the proposal.
The recommendations set forth above have been reviewed with respect to the applicability of CEQA (Public Resources Code Section 21000 et seq.) City staff has determined that adopting a resolution to consider a land use amendment and concurrent processing for a proposed project area, the mere designation of the property as either exempt or non-exempt surplus land and authorization for the City Manager to comply with the SLA do not qualify as a “project” as defined in CEQA Guidelines Section 15378. First, Section 15378 defines a project as an activity that “has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.” [CEQA Guidelines, § 15378(a)] Here, the action is to adopt a resolution initiating a General Plan amendment for the land use designation on the proposed project area, and declare portions of the property either exempt or non- exempt surplus, which will not result in either a direct physical change in the environment or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the Downtown Project GPA Initiation and Surplus Land Declarations July 8, 2025
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environment. Accordingly, the action is not a “project” subject to CEQA. [State CEQA Guidelines, § 15060(c)] Second, Section 15378 explicitly excludes from its definition of “project” the following: “organizational or administrative activities of governments that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment.” [State CEQA Guidelines, § 15378(b)(5)] The action to initiate a General Plan amendment and designate the property as either exempt or non- exempt surplus land also constitutes an organizational or administrative activity that will not result in a physical change in the environment, and it therefore is not subject to CEQA. In the alternative, even if the actions contemplated here constituted a “project” under CEQA, adoption of the resolutions do not have the potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. [State CEQA Guidelines, § 15061(b)(3)] These resolutions do not constitute a binding commitment to any particular use of the subject property.
COUNCIL GOAL COMPLIANCE:
Meets the following City Council goals:
B. Provide municipal government leadership which is open and responsive to residents, and is characterized by ethical behavior, stability, promoting public trust, transparency, confidence in the future, and cooperative interaction among civic leaders, residents, business representatives, and staff, while recognizing and respecting legitimate differences of opinion on critical issues facing the City.
C. Operate City government in a fiscally and managerially responsible and prudent manner to ensure that the City of Thousand Oaks remains one of California's most desirable places to live, work, visit, recreate, and raise a family.
G. Continue City's commitment to community and cultural programs and services (such as Performing Arts/Theatres, Libraries, TOTV, Visual Arts, Youth and Senior Programs).
J. Implement high quality revitalization projects within Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Newbury Road Areas; develop a pedestrian-oriented, viable, and self- sustaining "Downtown;” and, continue to support production of long-term affordable housing.
PREPARED BY: Justine Kendall, Senior Planner
Akbar Alikhan, Deputy City Manager
Attachments:
Attachment #1 – Vicinity Map
Attachment #2 – Location Map
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Attachment #3 – Aerial Photograph
Attachment #4 – Resolution
Attachment #5 – Map of Parcels Previously Advertised as Surplus Attachment #6 – 2025 Downtown Project Proposed Site Plan Attachment #7 – Resolution Declaring Certain City-owned Areas as Non- Exempt Surplus Lands
Attachment #8 – Resolution Declaring Certain City-owned Areas as Exempt Surplus Lands
cdd:440-35/jk/H:COMMON/City Council/CC Agenda Items/2025/07082025/Downtown Project Initiation/Staff Report.docx