COUNCIL TO HEAR HOUSING DEBATE.

Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer

Supporters and opponents of the Dos Vientos housing project will square off again at tonight's City Council meeting.

At issue this time will be a Courtly Homes request to build 208 single-family homes rather than 112 duplex condominiums. After the council rejected an appeal by Save Open Space on the Planning Commission's approval of the change last year, SOS filed suit against the city.

In November, Judge Barbara Lane overturned the council's decision and sent the issue back to the city to hold a public hearing on the modifications to Courtly Homes' plan.

``We're asking them to go back to the development agreement and deny the major modifications,'' said Lorraine Slattery, the Newbury Park liaison for SOS. ``We feel it lowers the standards and creates higher density in Newbury Park.''

The modified plan calls for homes instead of duplex condominiums, and the buildings will be closer together on smaller lots, Slattery said. The new plan favors larger families, which means more cars, more kids and a strain on streets and schools, she said.

The original plan called for 224 three-bedroom units that would hold up to 672 bedrooms, while the revised plan calls for 208 homes of up to five bedrooms each, or a maximum of 1,040 bedrooms.

But many of the prospective buyers seem not to be families, but rather older couples who just want more space, said Sandy Humphrey, co-president of Dos Vientos Amigos, a Dos Vientos community support group.

``They don't downsize into a condo like they used to,'' Humphrey said.

Dos Vientos Amigos member Kathy Frasher just wants the issue resolved so that she, her husband and their twins can move into a more spacious home.

``I have been waiting for two years to live in a house in that development,'' Frasher said. ``We have outgrown our house. We're living in terribly cramped quarters.''

The new plan calls for more open space than the original, Frasher said. But the revision simply squeezes the homes tighter together to leave more space around it, Slattery said.

``They haven't magically created open space,'' she said.

Dos Vientos Amigos will be out in force to support the changes, Humphrey said.

``It is being developed in a way that is going to be absolutely beautiful,'' she said. ``I'm certain that every question they have will be answered.''

Frasher said the council should follow the will of the majority of the people.

``The community strongly supports this development,'' she said.

That might be so, but last week the council also heard testimony from dozens of people who supported the Ventura County Medical Cannabis Center, Slattery said. Yet the council still voted to begin the process of outlawing such dispensaries in the city on the basis that it was a land-use issue. Slattery said she sees the Dos Vientos issue in the same light.

``This is a land-use issue,'' she said. ``I don't care whether people want this or not.''

If the issues raised in the judge's decision are not addressed, Slattery said, SOS likely would take the city back to court.

The City Council is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. today at the Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.