THOUSAND OAKS : Planners Vote to OK Body Shop in Mall

The Thousand Oaks Planning Commission is recommending a zoning change to allow the construction of an auto body-repair shop on the site of a vacant car dealership in the city’s auto mall.

The commission voted 4 to 1 this week to approve the zoning change and construction of the shop. Commissioner Irv Wasserman dissented. The issue is scheduled to go before the City Council on Dec. 15.

The shop would occupy a portion of the former Al Piano Honda dealership on the corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Auto Mall Drive.

A Saturn dealership would occupy the rest of the site, said Bill Anderson, vice president of Topa Equities. Topa owns the Al Piano site and four other dealerships in the Auto Mall.

“This will be a state-of-the-art, good-sized, well-managed, independent body shop,” Anderson said. He said it initially would employ 15 people and could expand to 40 or 45 employees within four years.

The shop would be required to build a fence or wall at least six feet high to screen the view of dismantled or damaged cars from adjacent streets.

Wasserman said he opposed the commission’s decision because it sets a precedent that could lead to a proliferation of unsightly body shops at the auto mall.

“What I’m afraid of is, with the approval of a stand-alone body shop, we’ve opened the door to similar placements of body shops,” Wasserman said. “Five or eight or 10 years from now, this could be a very big mistake.”