ROAD ISSUE OPENS UP T.O. DEBATE WITH ROLLING OAKS; CITY COUNCIL WEIGHS INTERESTS OF ROLLING OAKS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Daily News Staff Writer

Bruce Beckwith is trying to show off the spectacular view of the canyon behind his neighborhood, where rock formations create a waterfall in wintertime and deer poke around the trees and shrubs.

So he heads into his neighbor's back yard that offers just the spot to look out over the edge and gaze into the hills.

``This is our neighborhood,'' said the father of two and president of the local homeowners association. ``Everyone's very open and friendly.''

Nestled in the heart of Thousand Oaks, minutes from the downtown center, sits a quiet neighborhood of county living where horses trot along what would be sidewalks somewhere else, and residents on the expensive 2-1/2-acre lots know the families next door.

The Rolling Oaks neighborhood is among the few pockets of unincorporated land within city limits, property within the reach of City Hall but without representation on the local dais, co-existing simply from the desire of both to be remain good neighbors.

``We've been living very well with the city of Thousand Oaks over the years,'' said longtime resident Bob Detterman, who moved there in 1965. ``They've been tolerating us. We've been tolerating them.''

The relationship has not been without its up and downs over the years, from the water battles of decades past to the recent debate over bulldozing a road at the foot of the neighborhood to connect it with Thousand Oaks neighbors to the north.

But all in all, the two sides have come to gently co-exist - which is all for the better, because there are few other options.

``That's what happens when you have islands,'' said Ron Stark, an aide to county supervisor Frank Schillo and a founder of a citylike Municipal Advisory Committee in Oak Park. ``They have two choices: They could join the city, and the city would probably welcome that, or they could try to live with it.''

Joining the city has rarely been met with much enthusiasm in the Rolling Oaks neighborhood, where residents exist without city services other than water. They arrange their own garbage pickup - sometimes sharing a dumpster for big cleanup days - and rely on the county to pave the two-lane winding road.

``If you join the city, you're going to have to bring the roads, the curbs; you put in sidewalks,'' said Detterman. ``We don't want that. We want our roads to be dark. We don't want sidewalks; we want bridle trails. That's why we've said no to all the attempts to join the city.''

Without joining the city, where elected officials have an interest in pleasing the voting public, residents in unincorporated lands have few options for stretching their political power beyond what their local county supervisor or state legislators can provide.

They can stick with a basic homeowners association, which has no official political authority but can provide political clout by amassing a group of residents over an issue.

They could seek a county supervisor-appointed advisory committee, or they could form a more formal Municipal Advisory Council - three exist countywide - which involves electing officials through public ballot to represent the community.

For the folks in Rolling Oaks, where about 35 residents live in an area with about 60 lots in expensive homes, their strength over the years has been in the community's ability to band together as a homeowners association and take their case to the elected officials - be it the local legislator who helped fight for water rights to today's City Council.

``We are very good at that. And we do have good representation - we never feel like we're left out,'' said Detterman. ``They could have very easily many, many times over the past years said, `You are not citizens of Thousand Oaks. You have no right to speak with us.' ''

But the relationship between the two may be put to the test as the city tries to balance the needs of its residents to the west, who want a secondary road to and from their neighborhood, and Rolling Oaks residents who don't want the thoroughfare to cut through their neighborhood.

The City Council debated the issue at a recent meeting and is reviewing various options - three that the Rolling Oaks residents say they could live with because the road would parallel the freeway at the bottom of their hill, and one that they oppose because it would extend Rolling Oaks Drive and cut through the neighborhood. Neighbors on the other side have been open to most options, hopeful to have a new road soon.

The council is also considering a more costly option of sending the road over or under the freeway, and Beckwith, who is president of the neighborhood's Rolling Oaks Property Owners Association, has been surveying other alternatives that could provide a compromise.

But unlike past battles, when Rolling Oaks' concerns often paralleled those in City Hall, the road issue provides new ground for debate.

``This is the first time there's really been a direct confrontation between the interests of this area and the interests of citizens in the city area,'' said Dettermen. ``And so the decision is not going to be an easy decision like it has in the past.''

Detterman is waiting it out, as he has since he moved to the area when there were just 15 homes more than three decades ago.

Like most of the residents that make up the Rolling Oaks community, living on a handful of streets with names like Colt Lane and Sundown Road, the semiretired engineer and his wife moved in to have a peaceful place for family and livestock.

They raised three children there and these days keep about 15 horses on the property, often riding around the local trails and enjoying the scenery.

``We love this area, and we don't really want it to change,'' he said. ``It's just a great place.''

CAPTION(S):

photo

PHOTO (color in Conejo edition only) The unincorporated community of Rolling Oaks sits just minutes from the center of Thousand Oaks, but is not part of the city.

Tina Gerson/Daily News