VIDEO FUELS FIGHT OVER DAM.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

A new video showing what Lang Ranch Dam could look like if it is built along Westlake Boulevard was viewed critically by opponents, who said it doesn't capture the project's size or depict the harm it could do to oak trees.

Thousand Oaks has been ordered by a federal judge to provide the 11.4-acre dam and a smaller retention basin along both sides of Westlake Village Boulevard as a condition of the city's approval of the Lang Ranch housing development. The basins are to capture runoff from the 2,257-home development.

Despite the court order, many community members are fighting the dam, saying the structure would be too big and could destroy ancient oaks.

To try to alleviate those concerns, Ventura County officials commissioned the $10,000 video, which was presented at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

``They'll be able to see what it'll really look like, and they won't have to imagine,'' said Art Goulet, director of the county Public Works Department, which would build the dam for the city. ``The conclusion is, this is not going to be objectionable aesthetically.''

However, one resident who viewed the tape during the City Council meeting said it does not accurately portray the size of the dam or the harm it could do to more than 140 oak trees on the site.

``It was very incomplete,'' said Jan Osterhaven, who is among those who have opposed the project.

Osterhaven said the video only shows the structure proposed for the west side of Westlake Boulevard, and not the debris basin on the other side.

She said the video also showed the oak trees thriving and providing a screen for the dam, when environmental experts have warned that the trees could die.

``The video makes it look like they're all alive and actually screening that dam,'' she said. ``People will think that it's not as environmentally dangerous as it is.''

Goulet, however, said the video was meant to show what the dam could look like, and did not include the debris basin because most of that structure already exists.

He also said the video showed as accurately as possible what the area would look like after a few dozen oak trees are uprooted to make way for the project. But he said it would be difficult for the video to capture future harm that could come to the remaining oak trees.

The video was made over two months by students from the Ventura Unified School District's Adult Education school. Students used photographs of the property and of existing dams elsewhere in Ventura County to create the pictures of the proposed dam.

A copy will be available later this week at City Hall.