4-LANE STREET PROJECTS WORRY T.O. RESIDENTS.

Byline: Gloria Gonzales Daily News Staff Writer

Residents were out in force this weekend, handing out fliers protesting two road changes slated for Thousand Oaks' western end.

Some of those residents will share their opinions tonight when the Thousand Oaks City Council reviews the west side traffic plan, said Michelle Koeke, chairwoman of Residents to Preserve Newbury Park.

The city staff has recommended adding lanes to five streets west of the Moorpark Freeway, but residents are protesting only the expansions of two roads that connect Newbury Park neighborhoods to the Ventura Freeway.

The city's traffic engineering division manager, John Helliwell, said Monday that none of the changes was imminent, and that tonight's public hearing would give residents a chance to voice their opinions on proposed changes.

When the City Council reviewed the east side traffic plan two weeks ago, residents from that area turned out in droves to protest plans, which included widening Erbes Road and extending La Granada Drive. The council subsequently shelved both plans.

Another traffic engineer, Beth Baden, cautioned that changes to one aspect of the traffic plan would affect traffic on other roads.

``The council has to remember that we're looking at a long-range plan for the whole city, and every decision affects the plan as a whole,'' Baden said. ``It's like water flowing through pipes: If you keep one pipe too narrow, more water will flow through other pipes.''

Traffic planners have recommended widening Old Conejo Road from Reino Road to Wendy Drive from two lanes to four lanes. Planners also have recommended restriping Wendy Drive from Potrero Road to the freeway on-ramp, creating four lanes instead of the current two.

Adding lanes to both roads would reduce congestion and improve freeway access, Baden said. Up to 14,500 motorists use Old Conejo each day and 16,000 use Wendy - levels that exceed those recommended in the General Plan, Baden said.

And traffic is projected to increase by as much as 6,000 trips a day with the development of the 2,350-home Dos Vientos project and the Seventh-day Adventist retail project just north of the Ventura Freeway.

``We were handing out fliers because we wanted people to know that these are big changes,'' Koeke said. ``Developers say Dos Vientos residents won't turn north on Wendy Drive from Lynn Road to get to the freeway if it's widened. How can you stop them? Are they going to have D.V. tattooed on their foreheads, and officers will ticket them if they use the road?''

Planners hope that Dos Vientos residents will use Lynn Road in the south and Borchard Road in the north as the main entrance and exit roads. Baden added that industrial development just south of the Ventura Freeway also is expected to increase traffic.

Residents concerned about widening Old Conejo Road worry as much about aesthetics as they do about traffic. Expanding the road would require the removal of mature pepper trees that line both sides of the road.

``This street is a reminder of the old Thousand Oaks,'' Koeke said. ``We say in our General Plan that we're committed to retaining the city's rural character. Well, there are few streets in the city that still have that character and Old Conejo Road is one of them.''

Public hearings on the proposed road changes will begin at 7 tonight in the Forum Theater at the Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.