THOUSAND OAKS : Wetlands Protection Plan to Get Hearing

Thousand Oaks planning commissioners will hear from city residents Monday on a proposal that would prohibit construction within 50 feet of the city’s wetlands.

A draft of the proposed wetlands protection law narrowly passed the City Council in December, with a majority of members expressing misgivings about the law.

But on a 3-2 vote, the council decided to send the proposal to the Planning Commission for review and public hearing.

Monday night’s hearing is expected to be heated.

“My sense is that a number of people are interested in it from both sides,” said Irving Wasserman, chairman of the Planning Commission. “It should be interesting.”

Several council members argued in December that a wetlands protection law would create an unnecessary layer of red tape, since the state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers already monitor wetlands.

But Fish and Game officials endorsed the proposal, saying that deer, rabbits, bobcats and other animals need the wetlands for survival and have trouble gaining access when development marches right up to the creek banks.