BUSINESSES REBUILDING BOULEVARD; STORE OWNERS UNITE TO STOP URBAN BLIGHT.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

For years, businessman Dave Gulbranson said, he cringed every time he looked out the front window of his Thousand Oaks Boulevard glass company at the former site of D&K Liquor.

Broken pieces of cement and trash had accumulated along the long vacant storefront, while the weeds and wild brush grew longer in the cracked pavement and unkempt landscaping.

``Oh, what an eyesore. I couldn't take it anymore. I decided it was finally time to do something about it,'' said Gulbranson, a 23-year resident and founding member of the West Boulevard Business Group.

The group is composed of about 20 merchants and property owners whose businesses run along Thousand Oaks Boulevard between Rancho and Moorpark roads. It has been working closely with city officials over the last year for an official blessing to renovate and renew Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

Taking its cue from an upturning local economy, Gulbranson has led the group in buying vacant and tired buildings and turning them into attractive storefronts.

Investing about $100,000 in the project, Gulbranson refurbished the exterior of one building, which reopened last summer as a mattress store. This month, he earned the city's approval to restore two more buildings near his Oakstone Glass Corp.

Gulbranson's projects are part of a comprehensive effort by local merchants and officials to clean up and convert dozens of ``opportunity areas'' along the city's chief arterial roadway and first commercial strip.

Thousand Oaks Boulevard was designated a city redevelopment project area in 1979, but only recently have steps been taken to encourage revitalization, associate planner Haider Alawami said.

``Most of those buildings have been there a long time,'' he said. ``Many are some of the oldest buildings in the city. For years, we talked about redeveloping this area. But if you don't have the cooperation and support of the businesses, it's hard for the city to do anything. This time, they came to us.

``And that's why I think everyone's excited about it and why I think it will work,'' he said.

A few months ago, the West Boulevard Business Group won unanimous support from the City Council for a plan that would include decorative crosswalks, clocks and street lamps, street trollies and even attractive trash bins.

And one of the group's primary objectives - to clean up the fenced-in lot where the old Gasco station once stood - appears to have been achieved. A small pedestrian park planned for the property with trees, shade, grass, a stream, park benches and walking paths is awaiting the sale of the property to the city.

``We're hoping to start creating a pedestrian-friendly environment that will invite more people into the area. This is really going to begin to spruce up the boulevard,'' Alawami said. ``And eventually, we hope, more will happen on the private side from property owners and merchants willing to invest.''

Susan Duntley, president of the West Boulevard Business Group, said the increasing enthusiasm in revitalizing the neighborhood has restored her optimism. For years, a lagging economy and an unenthusiastic city didn't help the merchants much.

``If the city is not going to do anything about the street's condition or monitor the hazardous conditions of properties like the Gasco station, then why put a coat of paint on your building? How's that going to do anything for the look of the boulevard?'' she said.

``There's only so much you can do when the whole street is not very welcoming with blaring street lights that belong on the freeway and not on the city's sidewalk, or trees that haven't been watered and are dying,'' Duntley said.

The West Boulevard Business Group began more than a year ago, when Cal-U-Rent manager Russ Goodenough approached neighboring business owners with the idea of proposing revitalization projects to the city.

``There was a great need for the city to start the revitalization process for Thousand Oaks Boulevard,'' said Goodenough, who also chairs the Mayor's Business Roundtable, a group of about 70 members founded in 1993. ``Obviously, the more private money this community can encourage people to spend on their businesses to enhance the ambience of the area, the better we can make something attractive to bring people back here.''

Mayor Pro Tem Linda Parks credits the group for jump-starting local revitalization efforts.

``We need to have the right blend of pedestrian-friendly areas and retailing,'' Parks said. ``I've been very encouraged by what I've seen. I believe it's going to take property owners and retailers on the boulevard bringing their suggestions to the city for what they want to see to make it happen.''

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Photo

PHOTO (Color) Glass company owner Dave Gulbranson, left, and Michael Rote of Rote Brothers Construction stand in front of a Thousand Oaks Boulevard storefront being renovated by the West Boulevard Business Group.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News