The Home Depot proposal just wasn't logical

I want to applaud Thousand Oaks City Council members Dennis Gillette, Jacqui Irwin, Claudia Bill-de la Peña and Andy Fox for doing the right thing about Home Depot.

The right thing was, of course, listening to the residents and many small businesses that are located on or near the Kmart site on Hampshire Road.

With so many vacant storefronts on Thousand Oaks Boulevard- the last count was 40- the council realized that the city didn't need additional empty stores. The placement of another Home Depot would have hurt established businesses.

There were also concerns about the increase in traffic and safety issues at the 101 Freeway offramps leading to the store and the need for more police at the site if the project had been approved.

It may have been tempting to finally transform the old Kmart site into a fresh brickand-mortar store, along with some trees and bushes, but the temptation soon faded into reality: The project wasn't in the best interests of the people. Joseph Simeone Thousand Oaks