Space Going to Waste at Old City Hall

In my role as a citizen, parent and community volunteer, I have had the opportunity to observe and participate in various areas of our viable community of Thousand Oaks. We owe much gratitude to our elected and appointed citizen leaders, who have had the foresight to plan for the city’s future needs, often making difficult and unpopular decisions for the good of all.

For the last several years, I have been concerned about the indecisiveness regarding the former City Hall at 401 Hillcrest Drive. Since 1987, it has remained vacant and allowed to deteriorate. Over the last nine years, citizen volunteers, with the encouragement of the city leaders, performed feasibility studies of the site’s best usage. Rezoning changes were made to afford greater marketability. And the expensive process of asbestos removal was accomplished at both buildings. To date the property has not been leased or sold.

In the last few years, two organizations expressed an interest in leasing the property, Ventura County Discovery Center and most recently the National Park Service. How much revenue has been lost to the city? Had we leased the property at the very conservative rate of $1 per square foot we would have generated over $50,000 per year, or $450,000 over the past nine years.

How much longer can we afford to lose $50K per year?

VINCE VLASIC

Thousand Oaks