By Sophia Fischersfischer@theacorn.com

A two-story medical building and multilevel parking garage may be built in the Los Robles Medical Office complex adjacent to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks.

The Thousand Oaks City Council recently approved a zone change for the site to allow the project to go through the process of review by the planning commission. The current commercial/office zone doesn’t allow multilevel above-grade parking structures and restricts building heights to 25 feet.

Mayor Claudia Bill-de la Peña expressed concern about changing municipal code to accommodate the interest of one particular group and suggested studying the issue rather than issuing a code amendment.

“Will that open up any opportunity for other commercial projects in the city once we set a

precedent to create an overlay

zone change?” Bill-de la Peña

asked.

It would, responded Commu

nity Development Director John

Prescott. “However, any zoning

district is going to have stan

dards. We would look at what the

purpose of the district is,”

Prescott said.

Bill-de la Peña also felt that residents whose homes are adjacent to the site should be informed about the project, but Prescott said since it wasn’t a public hearing neighbors were not notified by the city.

“We’re in need of more (hospital) beds, not more medical services and offices,” Bill-de la Peña said.

Councilmember Andy Fox

disagreed, pointing out that more

hospital beds translates to the

need for more medical services

and offices.

“This is very much a public

policy issue rather than a devel

opment issue,” Fox said.

Councilmember Jacqui Irwin agreed with Fox but supported Bill-de la Peña’s suggestion that neighboring residents be contacted about the project.

“Los Robles Regional Medical Center is the only comprehensive regional medical center we have in town or ever will,” Irwin said. “We don’t have the opportunity, as the community grows, to replicate that.”

The owner of the site, Dr. Terry Turkat, also owns several buildings within the medical complex. His vision, according to attorney Chuck Cohen, is to create a “campus atmosphere” and provide pedestrian connections between all of the buildings.

Cohen sought to offer reassurance that the project wouldn’t negatively affect neighboring homes. The parking structure would be built in such a way that at its highest point it would be street level with Janss Road, making it appear to be only one level. Other medical buildings surrounding Los Robles are higher than 25 feet, so the proposed building wouldn’t be unusual.

The new medical building would allow for the expansion and relocation of imaging services closer to the hospital, making it more convenient for patients to get to the hospital’s emergency room. Currently, patients must be transported to the emergency room in an ambulance. It would also allow for the expansion of the dialysis center and provide muchneeded medical office space, added Cohen.

“Twenty physicians would like to locate near the hospital. We need to provide space for these folks,” Cohen said.