CHAMBER BAILOUT AWAITED; COUNCIL SET TO VOTE ON PLAN'S LAST HURDLE.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

The proposed bailout of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce will pass a final hurdle today if the City Council approves a one-time waiver so the chamber can sell its building and remain a tenant, officials said.

The council action is needed because a deed restriction intended to keep commercial development off the prominent site at Lynn Road and Hillcrest Drive would require the property to revert to residential use if sold. With the waiver, the prospective buyer could only use the site for a public and community information center, chamber office and meeting rooms under the public-land zoning, officials said.

``What we're requiring is that if there is a transfer that takes place, that the same provisions for the chamber would be the same requirements for the new owner,'' said Robert Biery, the city's finance director. ``This clears the way for the chamber.''

The financially strapped chamber sought to sell the 2,900-square-foot building after falling behind in its mortgage payments by some five months.

The City Council voted to take over the building - without a promise to lease it back to the organization - based on a 1989 agreement making the city the guarantor should the chamber default on its monthly mortgage payments.

Just days later, Robert Barker, a contractor and longtime Thousand Oaks resident, proposed paying the $455,000 loan balance and taking over the building - along with the promise of leasing it back to the chamber.

Cleon Strawmyer, a Simi Valley real estate agent and Barker's spokesman, has said Barker's intention is to buy the building so that the chamber can remain there and public money is not used for the private entity.

The chamber's board is recommending that the chamber's full membership approve the sale to Barker on Friday.

``I believe the membership will support the recommendation of the board,'' said Larry Carrignan, the chamber's president-elect. ``This really is a great deal for the chamber.''

The sale calls for the chamber to lease the office for two years with two additional five-year lease options. By leasing, the chamber also saves on insurance, landscaping and other costs and will make gross rather than monthly payments, Carrignan said.

``It will allow us to pay off our debt, and we've restructured our lease so we will save 30 percent of our occupancy costs that we now pay as owners,'' he explained.

If approved, the sale also relieves the city of its responsibility to take over the building and pay down the debt, Biery said.

City officials said the sale, however, would trigger the deed restriction stating that ``. . . the premises shall remain undivided and used solely for one residential lot. . . .''

``It was specifically written into the agreement because it's a special corner and the city wants to maintain it as a gateway to the city,'' Biery said.

Both Biery and Mayor Michael Markey said the property's use still would be limited even with the one-time waiver on the residential restriction and the corner could not be developed for commercial uses.

``The new owner would have to come to the council for any changes,'' Markey said. ``That maintains the quality of the corner as it is. That is a true gateway to the city.''