Editorial: What Thousand Oaks learned from Kmart
There are many ways to measure how life has changed over the last three decades, but one enlightening way is to count the Kmarts. For younger residents the term may be as foreign as, say “Blockbuster Video,” but there was a time when they were easy enough to count.
At the company’s peak in 1994, there were 2,323 Kmart stores in the United States. Every large city in Ventura County had one. One by one, they disappeared. Today there are just three in the continental states. Although some stores have been converted — a Vons in Camarillo, a Target in Simi Valley, a Walmart in Ventura — vacant sites dot suburban landscapes like tombstones. In Santa Paula, there remains something of a ghost: a covered bench along Faulkner Road that retains the name “Santa Paula Kmart” bus stop.
And then there is the Thousand Oaks Kmart site. It’s been something of an eyesore along Hampshire Road since the once-mighty retailer vacated the property in 2004. It’s about to be resurrected.
The story of its resurrection and the plans for what’s to come offer a constructive and encouraging lesson for how Ventura County can adapt to changing times, grow and prosper without surrendering the desire of its residents to preserve open space and retain the quality of life that sets this county apart.
The Thousand Oaks City Council this month gave its approval — unanimously, and without public opposition — to convert the site into a mixed-use development that will include 420 apartments and 15,000 square-feet of retail space. Of the residences, 54 will be set aside for low- and moderate-income tenants.
It is encircled by urbanized areas and includes amenities that will bring vitality to the neighborhood — pedestrian trails, pocket parks, a dog park, dining plazas and two large park-like plazas with sitting areas near the main entrance.
It is, in short, the kind of infill development that should always be welcome, replacing blight with modern facilities without displacing existing residential neighborhoods.
The T.O. Ranch development is a perfect fit for a city in which outward expansion is a political non-starter.
Councilman Al Adam expressed it well as he joined his colleagues in voting for approval. “This project fits right into what the community has been saying they want,” he said. “They don’t want to see building in open space.”
Early this year we wrote in this space that the county’s longstanding concerns about unwelcome growth needed to be put into a new perspective. The data show that the population of Ventura County — as is the case with all of coastal California — declined last year and that it is possible that the number of people living here has peaked.
We argued that concern about decay is now more justified than concern about growth. To be sure, slow-growth policies have enabled the county to preserve agriculture and open space and prevented a march of development that could have made it little more than an extension of the San Fernando Valley. Those policies continue to play an important role, as surely there remain financial incentives to pave over prime undeveloped land in Southern California.
But what happens inside our urbanized areas is now at least an equally pressing concern. As one resident who testified in favor of the T.O. Ranch project noted, visitors would look at that abandoned retail site and ask whether the city had become blighted.
The story of Kmart provides an object lesson. Perpetual prosperity is never guaranteed. Plans and policies must adapt to meet the realities of the times.
Local elected officials and city planners across the county should look for opportunities where mixed-use projects similar to T.O. Ranch could be accommodated. Real estate developers should take note.
It’s now been shown in Thousand Oaks that smart housing projects will be welcome here.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Editorial: What Thousand Oaks learned from Kmart
