PHONE POLL RESULTS DON'T SHOW CONSENSUS ON BUILDING PLANS.

Byline: David Greenberg Daily News Staff Writer

City officials were hoping that residents using the new Community Action Partnership System, an electronic surveying project, would offer a consensus opinion on development options adjacent to the Civic Arts Plaza.

They discovered that no consensus exists - at least among the 770 who registered a preference.

With residents torn between low- and high-density projects, city officials will either have to decide themselves how to develop an 11-acre parcel just east of the plaza or call for a citywide ballot vote.

``I didn't find anything that clearly stood out as the most favored option,'' said Councilwoman Linda Parks. ``I'd like to see a larger group participate. Instead of several hundred, I'd like to see several thousand call in. It would be more representative of the population.''

Councilwoman Judy Lazar attributed the inconclusive results to the fact that a very small percentage of the city's 112,000 people voted and those that did had little information on which to base their decision.

``It's very difficult to visualize what was being proposed because it was all conceptual,'' she said.

Many non-city residents also took part in the survey, Parks added.

``I would like to see it limited to Thousand Oaks residents,'' she said.

The City Council on Tuesday will vote on whether to authorize sending out requests for proposals to developers, who would submit preliminary design options to the city this summer.

Council members Michael Markey, Andy Fox, and Elois Zeanah could not be reached for comment.

Survey results showed that 231 of the 770 callers favored the 76,400-square-foot development in Scenario No. 1, while 222 opted for the 112,400-square-foot plan in Scenario No. 3.

Scenario No. 1 consists of a 60,000-square-foot Ventura County Discovery Center children's museum; a 10,000-square-foot restaurant and comedy club; a 5,000-square-foot outdoor science park; a 1,200-square-foot police center; and a 200-square-foot restroom facility.

Everything in Scenario No. 1 is included in the other three.

Only 170 people chose Scenario No. 2, which also includes 98,900 square feet of space and does not include the cafe or specialty shop of No. 3.

Scenario No. 3 includes the additions of Scenario No. 2, plus a 15,000-square-foot movie theater; another restaurant as well as a cafe, both 7,500 square feet; and a 6,000-square-foot specialty shop.

The largest development - Scenario No. 4 - was also less popular: 147 people want a 152,400-square-foot project, which includes everything in Scenario No. 3 as well as a 30,000-square-foot conference center and a 10,000-square-foot CAP catering center.

Callers registered their opinions March 24-April 8.

A total of 53 people also left voice messages on a variety of issues; those opinions were not tabulated into the final results.

Parks said she doubts the council will approve another survey on development options at this point, because city staff is pressuring it to sent out the requests for proposals.

Both Parks and Lazar favor the idea of conducting another survey when more residents know about the system and have pertinent information, such as construction costs and sketches of the buildings.

``We need to have better outreach,'' Parks said.

The City Council approved installation of the system on a trial basis so residents' views could be accurately charted in one survey, sparing city officials and staff the burden of having to track those views themselves.

``This provides a tremendous opportunity for local governments to receive input from the local population on a variety of issues,'' said John Dokken, public affairs manager for GTE. ``As you can imagine, it would take a significant amount of staff time to manually answer this volume of telephone calls and manually compile the results.''

Callers may phone in as many times as they want but officials would know it was the same person calling repeatedly.

``You would be tabulated every time you called but it would indicate that is was the same number calling,'' Dokken said.

Meanwhile, a new survey that began at midnight Wednesday and runs through May 12 asks residents to chose from one of three metal oak-branch silhouette designs that would cover the so-called ``Copper Curtain,'' a 60-by-50-foot artwork on the east side of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

``If we get a dominate vote on one, that's the one we're going to use,'' said Francisco Behr, a member of the Ad Hoc Probst Signage/Copper Curtain Committee and the architect who will create the final silhouette.

He said he would like to see the project complete by 1999.

Stacy Minasian, the city's senior management analyst, said results to date have not yet been tabulated.

The $100,000 in funding has already been secured for whichever design is chosen.

CAST YOUR VOTE

Hoping to finally resolve the controversy over the ``Copper Curtain'' sculpture, the City Council is seeking residents' opinions on how to best amend the maligned artwork on the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. Through midnight May 13, the city is sponsoring a phone poll on three oak-tree inspired designs by Westlake Village architect Francisco Behr. The winning design will be used to create a metal sculpture that will be affixed to the ``Copper Curtain,'' along with the words ``City of Thousand Oaks.''

CALL THE NUMBER BELOW FOR YOUR CHOICE

To cast your vote in the city poll, call the number listed under each of the designs below. If you don't like any of the selections or have a suggestion of your own, call the city's voice message line at [phone].

1 - [phone]

2 - [phone]

3 - [phone]

The Daily News also would like to know what you think about the proposed sculpture. Write us at 1197-E Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley 93065. Fax us at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

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BOX: CAST YOUR VOTE (see text)