City Council — January 27, 2026

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I will now call to order the City Council meeting. Will the city clerk please take the roll?

Council Member Adam is absent, Council Member Newman is absent, Council Member Gutierrez? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Engler?

Here.

And Mayor Taylor?

Here Tonight we have two closed sessions Miss Noonan will you please announce tonight's closed session

Thank you, Mayor Taylor. We have two closed sessions tonight, both of them pending litigation pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.98. The first one is Kim Samuel versus City of Thousand Oaks and the second one is Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility versus City of Thousand Oaks.

All right we have no speakers on this item so we will go into closed session and see you here shortly. . You. ♪ The City of Oaks You. You.

You. So, The The Wow. The You. ♪ ♪ you you You. Hello. Hello. ♪ Hi, everybody. you Hi. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪♪ All right, we are back from our closed session. Ms. Noonan is there anything for us to report?

Nothing to report.

All right if you are able please stand as we go the Pledge of Allegiance Okay, now we have a special presentation and joining us tonight is Rocky Rhodes. I welcome you to the podium. Rocky is a Simi Valley City Council member. And the Southern California Association of Governments, also known as SCAGS Regional Council Member for District 46. He represents the cities of Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.

Rocky tonight is going to provide an update on SCAG. Welcome Rocky!

Mayor Pro Tem and fellow CEHD council member, other council members and the wonderful staff of Thousand Oaks. My name is Rocky Rhodes and while I am a sitting City Council member in Simi Valley, the hat I really like wearing and I'm talking about tonight is your representative on SCAG for District 46 which was just explained by the mayor. Because some of you might not be familiar with SCAG, we're going to do a little history recap of what the organization is and then we're going to talk about some of the things that we do.

The goal at SCAG is to unite cities and counties across geographic, social and political divides around a common vision to improve quality of life in Southern California. We do this through the development of a comprehensive regional plan and more targeted planning studies and strategies focused on specific policy issue or priority. Our work is supported by both federal and state funds, and of course member dues that each of our cities pay in to be a part of SCAG.

Most of the plans we develop are required under either federal or state law, or both, and aimed at ensuring policies and investments across all levels of government are coordinated to achieve federal and state goals related to transportation, housing, and the environment. SCAG is led by a regional council comprised of 86 local elected officials representing member cities like Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.

It represents counties, county transportation commissions and tribal governments. The SCAG region includes six counties of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. It also includes 16 federally recognized tribal governments in a region of 18.7 million people which is about 47.6% of the entire state population. It's one of the most diverse, both demographically and geographically. And there is no way that any one person could really see what everyone is doing here and that's why a regional collaboration becomes so important.

Connect SoCal is our regional transportation sustainable community strategy plan or blueprint and it's one of the primary documents that SCAG, as the Metropolitan Planning Organization of Southern California, is responsible for preparing. And this document defines the collective vision and goals of the region. And based on engagement with the stakeholders like our cities and the public, we developed a vision for Southern California through 2050. And that simple vision is a healthy, prosperous, accessible and connected region for a more resilient and equitable future.

This includes goals across four main pillars of mobility, communities, environment and the economy. This plan is updated every four years with policies and strategies added and revised based on our progress towards the regional goals, as well as to address emerging issues like the fires that we just experienced. This slide reflects the major policy areas in our current plan under the four planning pillars.

The policy that you see here, those that are emphasized in bold and italics or with an asterisk, they reflect the new policies that were just added into the 2024 plan. In the area of mobility, we are increasingly focused on technology and technology integration ensuring safe and equitable deployment of transportation technologies and services. Everything from autonomous vehicles to e-bikes fall in this category With housing, with the housing crisis continuing to be a primary concern across the region our last plan placed a significant emphasis on both understanding development trends but also incorporating best practices to accelerate local housing production. The plan also emphasized the need for housing development not to just be dropped into a community, but for there to be focus on creating complete communities and increasing access to parks, child care, retail and daily needs through a more holistic planning and investment in local infrastructure.

When it comes to the environment we're increasingly focused on the impacts of climate change and the strategies to make our communities more resilient In terms of the economy, we looked at the impact of new technologies in transportation and the growing need to build a workforce to support the clean transportation technologies and the transition to a zero emission fleet goal.

The plan also considered the growing cost of transportation as a barrier to economic growth in our communities. We are looking at unexplored opportunities to increase access to jobs and schooling through programs like universal basic mobility, which bring us also programs like fare-free transit, which seem to be popular particularly among students. So let's talk about scope. Through the regional planning policies, or though the regional planning policies have expanded over time, the core investments in the plan remain focused on transportation because of our role our plan plays in accessing federal funds. That was the original intent of SCAG, was basically if you had a freeway that needed to go from Ventura to Riverside, you need all the players in place that can work together to get it done.

So transportation's at our core. Here's a quick look at the revenues and expenditures included in ConnectSoCal 24 which total over $751 billion dollars. On the revenue side, most of the funding comes from local and state sources with a smaller share from federal funds and other new opportunities. On the expenditure side, the largest share goes to operations and maintenance which means keeping our transit systems roads and highways running. And that leaves about 40% of the resources for new capital projects building and expanding infrastructure.

The plan is always in progress and we're now working on our next Connect SoCal update. And this slide's telling you that we have a continuous improvement process going through, we work on updates to the model first Then we look at our planning policies and priorities. We do deep data collection process where we work with cities and the public, and we're doing public research outreach. And then we draft the plan – we're planning on drafting the plan in 2027 with a finalization in 2028.

A concurrent with this update that we're working on for connect SoCal is the update to the RENA process. And we're all familiar, I think, with the RENA process which is the regional housing needs assessment I'm happy to say that the committee that I sit on, the subcommittee that I sit on with Mayor Pro Tem Engler is the Community Economic and Human Development Subcommittee. And that's the committee that Rina runs through.

So we're working hard now planning and trying to get a process in place that would allocate from the state more equitably to our cities, and then we as a committee are going to come up with a recommendation of a methodology for distributing those numbers. So if you want help with RHNA talk to Bob. The implementation of the plan is not the responsibility of a singular entity or agency. Rather, the plan is implemented through actions taken across federal state and local governments serving Southern California.

SCAG is primarily a planning and funding agency. Our role is to collaborate and support our partners, the cities in Implementation so that we can all achieve the regional vision. And there are four primary ways that SCAG does this implementation. First, a critical element of implementing our plan are efforts through policy leadership and we advocate in Sacramento.

Our priorities in Sacramento to achieve goals that include advocating for SB 375 modernization to better link the work we do on climate planning with implementation resources and advocate for project funding as part of the cap-and-trade renewal. Another priority for us at state and federal level is to leverage the upcoming 2028 games to accelerate implementation of mobility innovations in region and bring more funding to SoCal projects. The games are expected to track both public and private investment And this is a tremendous opportunity to accelerate the implementation of Connect SoCal. Every time the Olympics comes to a city, there's lasting infrastructure that is put in place and SCAG is in charge of mobility and the transportation of people and goods.

And so we're going to try and leverage that opportunity to move those programs forward. Our team also works to implement the regional plan through administration of federal funding programs Federal funds in the region include, are included in the Connect SoCal but they also have to be part of the Federal Transportation Improvement Program or FTIP. Just to give a sense of scale our most recent 2025 FTIB details $38.8 billion dollars in multimodal investments for a four-year program of projects The largest funding program we administer is the Surface Transportation Block Grant, or STBG, and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement, or CMAQ.

SCAG recently awarded $1.25 billion in federal funding through the Federal Fiscal Year of 28 to 132 transportation projects that will make it easier and safer for people to get around, reduce traffic and improve air quality across the region. A smaller but significant funding program is the Active Transportation Program, or ATP. It has funded active transportation plans and safe routes to school programs across the region as well as critical infrastructure projects.

And heads up to staff, the ATP cycle eight covering fiscal years 27-28 through 30-31 will offer an estimated $550 million in funding across the state with 114 million of that for the Skagg region. And for our regional active transportation program. The guidelines at both the statewide and regional levels are anticipated to be adopted in March 2026, and that'll open up the call for projects. So get your projects out, get ready.

In recent years we've also benefited from additional state support through the REAP 1 and REAP 2 programs to facilitate both housing and transportation funding programs, and implement our plan through a series of programs aimed at increasing capacity for housing on infill available lands and large corridor lands. We created and financed funding strategies like housing trusts, land trusts and catalyst funds. We're funding the utility infrastructure capacity expansion to support housing development. Can't build a house if you can't get electricity to it.

And we provide funding to support transportation infrastructure In addition to direct grants, SCAG offers a suite of local technical assistant resources to our cities to support local planning efforts. This slide highlights a few that might be of interest to your community. First, SCAG is actively participating in planning for the LA-28 Olympic and Paralympic Games in conjunction with LA- 28 City of L.A., Metro, Metrolink and Caltrans In addition to planning for mobility needs of athletes and spectators, SCAG is also responsible for the regional transportation demand management strategy. This is that thing that will live long past the games on how we move goods which means we'll be partnering with cities like yours and counties across the region to reduce travel on our roadways To support this work, we're developing a series of tools for cities including local activation toolkit with a focus on helping communities deploy community hub and fan zone activations to celebrate games closer to home.

I know in Simi Valley because we have the skateboarding museum, we're actually making a push to brand a community hub to center around that activity So come on over, it'll be fun. And keep people in Simi Valley as opposed to commuting to try and get downtown and by dispersing these things out into the communities they reduce traffic miles on our freeways Following the devastating wildfires last year, SCAG expanded its efforts to support our communities in preparing and responding to natural disasters and other shocks and stressors to become more resilient.

This spring we will release the Regional Resilience Toolkit which is a resource to help jurisdictions to identify resilience challenges then plan and fund and implement these strategies to address them. In addition to the technical assistance resources, we also have data analysis tools available on our website and in reports released throughout the year to support better planning and policymaking at the local and regional level.

Three of those are highlighted here. Through our regional pilot initiative program, SCAG has procured a technical consultant to provide direct technical assistance to public agencies like Thousand Oaks to refine research and answer key transportation and planning questions using big data analytics at no cost. So the work is already done, the consultant is paid for, and you guys can use it.

So we have, we also have safety planning resources on our website including a link to access the transportation safety predictive modeling and analysis platform which supports local and regional traffic safety planning and data focused investment decision making. And finally, I want to highlight the release of our 2025 Southern California Economic Update. Using SCAG's economic roundtable, the report came out in December and presents a snapshot and outlook for the region's economy with additional analysis and anticipated impacts by the LA-28 games.

The Economic Update is one of a series of data reports that SCAG releases throughout the year to understand trends, and progress on regional goals to inform regional and local policy making. And if all of that wasn't enough, if all of that information data and money wasn't enough we give you Rachel Wagner the senior government affairs officer that represents this area and she's your direct liaison and I'm sure staff knows her well And of course, you have Bob Engler who is on the CEHD committee with myself.

And we have Al Adams who is gonna be your delegate to the conference this year for voting on these things and so I appreciate all of you being involved. SCAG's an important part of our region. And with that, I am done with my presentation and I'd be happy to take any questions.

Any questions from my council? Rocky, thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you for the information and thank you for sitting on this board. Thank you. Next we have public comments. Will the city clerk please announce the public comments?

This is the time and place for public comments. Speakers are requested to state their name and community of residence for the record. Five individuals have requested to speak, and pursuant to council standards speakers are allowed three minutes. The yellow light displays when you have one minute remaining.

All right, I will call all the in-person speakers first. Tonight we have two so we're going to start with Patty Braga and then John if you want to come down and sit you will be next and then after that we'll move over to Zoom. Three minutes if it goes a little bit past that's fine but if I need to I'll just jump in and remind you

Thank you, I think I have it down to a solid two. Mayor Taylor, city council members, city staff, my name is Patti Braga and I have the pleasure of serving as the Executive Director for Ventura County Leadership Academy. VCLA's mission is to connect people and issues to strengthen our county and we do that by bringing together diverse network of leaders from the business, education, not-for-profit and public sectors.

Over our nine-month program, we hear from subject matter experts on complex issues impacting our community. We build relationships and understanding between the cohorts and throughout our vast alumni network. The goal is so that we can all work together in all industries, in all areas of our county to make our community the best it can be. We are now in our 31st year and we have over 890 alumni.

I wanted to take a moment to share with you our 23rd annual Journey to Leadership award honorees for 2026. This year's honorees include our Business Leader of the Year, Nick Deitch, Principal at RRM Design Group. Our Educational Leader of the Year, Dr. Cynthia Herrera, Vice Chancellor of Institutional Effectiveness at Ventura County Community College District Our not-for-profit leader of the year is Robin Britt, a member of Cohort 24 and is the Executive Director of Community Conscience here in Thousand Oaks.

Our public sector leader of the year is Mark Stadler, Senior Program Administrator for the Crisis Intervention Training program with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office. And our alumna of the year is Danielle Borja, cohort 24. President and CEO of the Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce. This is your formal invitation to the luncheon on Thursday April 30th beginning at 1130 in Camarillo. You can learn more by visiting our website or feel free to reach out to me. Thank you all.

Good evening, Council. I'm John from Thousand Oaks. It's good to see you all. Guess what year it is? It's 2026. That is the 250th birthday of the United States of America so we gotta have a party and most countries They kind of decline after about 250 years. They fall off a cliff and they decline, and it's usually I believe because they turn away from God. And when they do that, they start going down their own paths.

And then God turns his face away from them. And then they fall hard. Our Declaration of Independence that our founding fathers wrote It talks about God four times. Those guys were really, really smart and there's a lot of wisdom and understanding in there. And I was wondering, I'm thinking it might be a good idea as our culture kind of walks away from God that we try to pull back toward him and maybe a one way we could do that to get God into this conscious of our culture and of the public is to bring up and make apparent, make displayed in places our national motto which is In God We Trust.

So what I'm wondering is if you guys, if we could put that in the chambers here and the council. Put it on the die there maybe right? In God We Trust City of Thousand Oaks and then the oak tree. I think that would be really beautiful. And as we try to seek his guidance and wisdom Like most countries who do that and most people who do that, things change in such good ways.

And I'm experiencing that myself. It's amazing but I think that would be a good thing to do so if you could respond to that, you don't have to respond tonight but maybe at the next council meeting we could have some comments about it So I would love to hear what y'all think and I love you all. I pray for you all, and your families, and the staff, and your families.

And I really appreciate what y'all do so God bless you guys.

Thank you All right next we'll start on Zoom and Danielle Blum will be up All right. Okay, moving next we have Rosanna Guerra. Did I pronounce that right? I hope so. Guerra.

Good evening Mayor Taylor and City Council my name is Rosanna Guerra and I'm a 33 year resident of the city of Thousand Oaks I'm here to congratulate the City Council and the coalition that is coordinating the successful first months of Thrive Growth, The Homeless Center. When I first became aware of the development, I was encouraged by the fact that not only would Thousand Oaks establish a much needed shelter program on the east side of the county but also a permanent supportive housing program at the Quality Inn.

While a homeless shelter is much needed, as I said before an important second stage for long-term housing is the establishment of permanent supportive housing. We all know what happened with the Quality Inn project. As of October 20th 2025 the local project remains stalled due to fraud charges that are being adjudicated There was a quote in a local newspaper that stated that the $26 million could have changed lives here.

It was supposed to get people off the streets and into homes. While I applaud the establishment of ThrivePro, it is only a temporary solution. The Quality Inn project should have been considered as part of the equation. And without it, the city should have problem solved an expedient solution. It's been a couple of years since we heard any news about the status of the quality and project.

As a resident, we should have been updated as to where in the planning and priority stage is permanent supportive housing. My ask is to have an update on the status of the Quality Inn project and whether any further projects that are specific to permanent supportive housing are happening in Thousand Oaks. As I stated before, the need for permanent supportive housing goes hand-in-hand with a homeless shelter and needs to be addressed. Thank you.

All right next we have Kenzie Flame Kenzie, we can't hear you. It does not look like you're on mute. I'm hoping service is okay.

Let's try that.

There

we go. Can you hear me now?

You're good to go.

Hello?

Hello. Can you hear us?

Yes, I can. Great. I bet you can guess why I'm here. I am here to talk about e-bikes or better known as teenagers with air pods flying down the street at 30 miles per hour. E-bikes themselves aren't the problem, the problem is pretending that kids traveling 25 to 30 miles per hour through our school zones without helmets, without training and sometimes without basic traffic awareness is normal or acceptable. Right now the message we're sending unintentionally is, this is dangerous but only in theory. We don't need another flyer. We don't need another Instagram post. We need visible enforcement. I'm asking the city to prioritize a much larger law enforcement presence during school drop off and pick up times. Not one off operations, not pilots but consistent enforcement that actually changes behavior.

And yes this means ticketing riders without helmets, impounding illegal or modified e-bikes, ticketing parents who are not following traffic laws during school drop off and pick up times. Not quietly, not later but in front of the school give us a ticket with sirens on in front of our elementary school and I promise you that every parent will get their act together we will not turn left when there is no left Turn sign.

Because here's the truth, when consequences are visible behavior changes. When enforcement is predictable safety improves and when parents see tickets being written suddenly the rules matter. We ticket drivers for rolling stop signs we ticket drivers for not wearing seat belts. We don't call that mean we call that public safety right now our kids are learning that rules are optional speed is fun and adults will look the other way. That's not the lesson we want them learning on their way to algebra class Please invest in real enforcement, real accountability and real presence especially during the busiest most chaotic minutes of the school day. Let's stop waiting for a serious injury to act let's be proactive visible and unapologetic about our community safety thank you and have a wonderful evening

Thank you, Kinsey. And we appreciate you coming to speak with us. We know you have young kids and last time I think you were on the soccer field when you spoke to us so thank you very much. Does the city manager have any comments on any of the public comments?

Now just a couple very brief items I'll have chief Paris give the last speaker call just to chat a little bit more about the existing enforcement efforts So we have it e bike enforcement is a priority right now. We are writing tickets and we are Enforcing it the number one area that we need care and attention to his parental intervention On this front so it's an area of real focus not just in Thousand Oaks but across the sheriff departments a lot of conversations happening on that front and And it's something that chief Paris and I are talking about on a weekly basis We are working on some plans for the 250th along with our partners over at CR PD Which we'll talk a little bit more about as we get into the year to go a little bit bigger for the annual celebration this year And then as it relates to permanent supportive housing, it is.

It's certainly a valuable and Resource permits for housing is We are Without the quality in project and without that funding source. We do not have any current permit supportive housing on the horizon, but we do Have some successful placements that are occurring out of the Thrive Grove Navigation Center It's requiring a lot more collaboration with the county and a lot of careful work between the Sheriff's Department And our staff here and helping to make those placements, but we already have folks less than a year in that are moving out of the Thrive Group Navigation Center into housing solutions. So we want to have that continue.

Thank you, Mr. Powers and I'll just mention this real quick the city manager myself got to present at the Board of Supervisors this morning and highlight the Thrive Grove Navigation Center in the video we made and it's really encouraging to see it's been less than a year and we're watching lives change so I just want to commend everyone up here for the hard work there same with staff next we're going to move on to consent calendar Does anyone have any questions or would anybody like to pull anything?

No. Can I have a motion from anyone?

I'll move the consent calendar

All right, we have a motion will city clerk please prepare the vote

And that motion passes four to zero with councilmember Newman absent and your ordinance title is An ordinance approving development agreement with Conejo Recreation and Park District relating to city-owned property located at 401 and 403 West Hillcrest Drive, APNs 525-0-053. And the following parcel and mineral rights numbers 115, 175, 195, and 525 dash zero dash 060 with the following parcel of mineral rights numbers 085, 095, 115, 125, and 135.

Thousand Oaks, California development agreement dagger 2025-7004 ordinance number 1746-NS.

Thank you Next is tonight's department report presenting the item tonight a senior planner Scott Colts Colitz excuse me Scott go ahead

Just give me one second to pull up the PowerPoint presentation here I All right, well good evening Mayor members of the City Council and members of the public. The item before you tonight is a department report regarding the initiation of a zone change and concurrent processing of planning entitlements requested by Sender One, an indoor rock climbing gym company who wishes to start a new business at the Jans Marketplace.

Please know that other city staff will be available for questions if you have any tonight So the item before you is again a request for to adopt the resolution to initiate a zoning map amendment. This amendment would add a new height overlay to the zoning map within one parcel affiliated with the Jans Marketplace Shopping Center. It currently has a zoning of mixed use and the request would change a portion of that shopping center to mixed-use height limit overlay It would be limited to a specific geographic area of approximately 23,000 square feet. And physically where this is being located is a portion of the building that Sears used to occupy. So neighbors would be Dave and Buster's and the Nordstrom building.

Additionally, there's a request to authorize concurrent processing of the planning entitlements for a contemplated indoor rock climbing gym. And part of the request is to find tonight's action as not a project as defined under CEQA. If the project would be initiated, there would be environmental review that would happen later down the line. So the proposed conceptual location again is within the Jans Marketplace, an approximately 38-acre shopping center located at the northwest corner of Hillcrest Drive and Moorpark Road.

And today the Jans Marketplace consists of approximately 611,000 square feet of development consisting of retail, restaurants, entertainment, parking, and so on. And the concept involves repurposing one of the tenant spaces and lifting up approximately a 7500 square foot area, an area of the roof, up to about 65 feet. And at a high level, the contemplated rock climbing gym appears to be consistent with the general plan. But a detailed analysis of both the general plan policies as well as zoning development standards would happen as part of formal application if the request is in fact initiated.

So to give some visuals, the conceptual plans show that the raised roof area would be set back from the main building's facade. And as we look at the proposed conceptual renderings from Hollycrest, we would see that the roof line height would appear similar to the height of the adjacent towers that currently identify the building entrances. No new square footage or floor area is being proposed. Rather, it's just a new volume that would allow for the rock climbing walls to reach higher into the air.

So in terms of policy, in December of 2023 the City Council adopted the 2045 general plan. And the general plan established standards and policies including the creation of a mixed-use zone designation as well with a maximum height of 50 feet as well as a maximum height of 75 feet if the city council would approve either a height limit overlay as is being requested tonight or a new specific plan.

The height limit overlays, they accommodate additional building height and areas deemed appropriate by the City Council. And a height limit overlay can be applied to an entire site or as is being presented tonight, a specific geographic area within a parcel. And I just highlighted on this site on the screen, the site area that we are talking about. For a little bit of background, before the mixed-use land use designation and zoning was created, the Jans Marketplace that had a zone of Community Shopping Center or C3.

And that had a maximum height of 35 feet as part of those standards. And when it had that zone designation, there were three different overlays that were granted by the City Council. One was for the building that has recently had the Burlington Coat Factory use in it and that building has a maximum height of 44 feet Another one was the Regal Cinemas building. That building has a height of 40 and 1⁄2 feet, and the third one was for the approved hotel which is not yet constructed, and that height overlay is up to 75 feet.

Of note of the height overlays that have already been granted, two of those actually aren't needed anymore because they're actually underneath the 50-foot limitation that is granted by the mixed use land use designation and zone. But if this proposal would go through, this would be one of two that would be above the 50 feet, the hotel being 175 and this one being proposed at approximately 65 feet.

So the request before you this evening again is to begin the process. Upon City Council adoption of a resolution to initiate the zoning height overlay and authorize concurrent processing, the planning entitlements staff would first work with the applicant to have them file a formal application Then we would review and evaluate the proposal with relevant agencies and departments, and coordinate with the applicant team to further refine the project based on staff input.

Next step would be conducting the environmental review for the request followed by presentations to the Planning Commission, and the Planning Commission would make a recommendation to the City Council, and then we would finally bring the item back before the City Council to take final action on the legislative action as well as the development proposal. Alternatively, if the City Council does not initiate the zone change tonight to consider the height limit overlay, the application would not move forward and no other consideration would be required.

So staff recommends that the city council does take action to adopt the resolution, to initiate the zone change and the concurrent processing of the planning entitlements. And planning staff is here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for the presentation. Any questions?

Okay, Al Adams. Hey thank you. This is at the end where the rack is right? Nordstrom Rack? No?

No, this is not. This is on the south end of the shopping center where Dave and Buster's would be one of their neighbors. Where the

old Sears building

was right? Correct. I should know this but what's there now? It's a vacant tenant space today. What? It it's a vacant tenant space today. Oh it's vacant. So we're looking to take some of the vacant spaces and make it fully functional. Okay.

I can remember going to that Sears I'm aging myself. Okay, that's good. I'm situated, thank you.

All right with Mr. Engler?

Thank you, Mayor. In terms of the height overlay we're asking for 75 foot is that correct? That is correct up to 75 feet. Is the anticipation is that we're going to use the 75 feet or will it be more in terms of this is the maximum they'll be allowed to go but you know we'll see where it goes from there

So the policy consideration allows up to a maximum of 75 feet based on the conversations that we've had with the applicant team, including the conceptual drawings. They're currently anticipating 65 feet. The language in our resolution says approximately 65 feet not knowing exactly what those planning entitlement application will ultimately have but they're indicating there would be something less than 75 feet at this point.

And the elevations we saw here, those are based on a 65-foot elevation? That is correct. Okay thank you. Oh one other question. Tip, we're not approving this project at this time. We were just approving the ability of the applicant to continue on the process? That is absolutely correct yes. Thank you

All right, with no additional questions we're gonna move over to our speakers. We have two tonight in person. First we're gonna have Alice Cao followed by Danielle Borgia.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Alice Cao and I'm the co-founder and CEO of Sendra 1 Climbing. First of all, I want to thank you Mayor, Council Member, and the City staff for your consideration of our project. I just wanted to mention that this city has been incredible to work with in this whole process we felt very welcomed by the city so thank you very much.

I would like to share with you why I started climbing and how I started climbing. So, I got into climbing about 20 years ago after a man broke my heart. Maybe some of you can relate to this. I was super depressed and I walked into a climbing gym and it changed my life so I quit my job and I decided to start this climbing gym company with my friends and family.

What I could never imagine when I did this, when I started is that climbing is now an Olympic sport and that the Olympics gonna be in LA in 2028. One of the reasons CenterOne decided to come to Thousand Oaks after searching this area for over 10 years is because the values of this community really align with the values of CenterOne and my personal values. What is really important to us is that we are heavily focused on kids and families and we are committed to introducing more families to climbing.

What is also very special about our Thousand Oaks project in particular, is that this project is entirely funded by local investors in the Conejo Valley. And this is truly a community project built by the community for the community. So CenterOne is really excited to be opening in Thousand Oaks in early 2027. I'm available for any questions about our project or about my company and I appreciate your consideration and hope to have your support for tonight's resolution. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Taylor, Council Members, Danielle Borja, President and CEO of the Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce. Just a couple of brief comments on this item. You know, SenderOne is the exact type of businesses we are looking to attract to Thousand Oaks. We talk about the changing retail environment and the fact that experiences are really gonna be what fills these spaces and what people are really looking for. They can get a lot of items online they cannot Climb a Rock Wall Online.

This is going to be a tremendous addition to the Jans marketplace. It's gonna appeal to families in our communities as well as our young professionals that we're looking to attract here and stay here. I was literally just working on an Olympic deck before I came to this meeting, talking about different countries that we can come and train here and utilize our facilities and what perfect timing for this to potentially be done at 2027 ahead of our 2028 Olympics.

So, we encourage you on behalf of the chamber to approve this height overlay and appreciate your consideration.

Thank you. For staff would anybody like to respond with anything?

May I ask the applicant a quick question?

Yeah. Alice do you mind coming back to the microphone please?

Thank you, thanks for coming back down. Sure. Having an experiential event there at Jan's Mall would be a great addition to the community. My question is and I know that we always get questions on height of buildings in our town. What is the reason for the 65 feet? Is that necessary for what you're trying to do there? We do have a gym in town Not as high as that, the Boulder Dash. But why do we need to go 65 feet at this location?

So I think earlier, Scott thank you very much for your presentation. We had mentioned to going up to 75 feet but I think our intention is to go to just 65 feet but I think having this extra height really enhances the climbing experience. I think one of the things that we offer that is very unique in the climbing gym industry, we offer this kids area called Sunder City and we require the height to make it a just an exciting experience for the participants Any other questions I can answer?

And I'll move it over to staff if they want to comment on anything.

Thank you, Mayor. No comments from us.

All right.

Thank you. Thank

you. For Council, I know Mr. Engler report Al Adams.

We're all done with questions correct?

Well right now it is questions but if we don't have any more we can move over to comment.

I was going to go to comments if that's okay

All right, let's, I don't think I need to close the public hearing. Look, I'm learning quick. Hi. All right, let's move over to comments.

Al Adams. Here we go, really appreciate the first speaker that rock climbing can mend a broken heart. That's wonderful. An added benefit and of course having Danielle Borgia her noted rock climber herself, very compelling. You do a lot of rock climbing, right Tanya? No? Oh okay. But you're going to start it right? Anyway... The Jazz Marketplace is doing the exact right thing here. You know, shopping trips can't be just picking up a t-shirt or a pair of shoes anymore. There has to be an experience attached to it and this is exactly what this rock climbing wall will do. And it's not like this is the first mall. Mall of America has it. There's another one in Lakewood that has it so it's really a fantastic repurposing in that old Sears building.

The last time I looked at a Sears Cadillac, I think it was six. So I think we're a little past that now. You know how you hear that expression shop till you drop? Well with the climbing wall now its shop and don't drop right? You can use that. And I got the best endorsement of all, I mentioned to a young friend of mine that there's a potential for a climbing wall at the Jans Mall and he said he would be really stoked about that.

So we get the stoke endorsement here tonight. Anyway, thanks for bringing it. Really appreciate it, great use. So I'll make a motion that we approve 12, what? Yeah, 12A the height overlay limit change et cetera, et cetera. And there's no, what do you call it? Levine Act repercussions. Did I say that right? You did a good job there. Great work! I'll get there sooner or later. Mr. Engler.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and last time I saw you at the Sears, I think I was going to the Montgomery Wards. You

were?

I was going to the Montgomery Wards

I would GC Murphy the five and dime remember that one who buries this is starting to fly over tie in my head so Mikey knows all about that