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COSF News   (January 2008)                                    

Rancho Potrero update
The 326 acre open space parcel known as Rancho Potrero in southwest Newbury Park is south of Lynn Road, and bordered on the east by the National Park Service's Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center. The site includes grasslands, coastal sage scrub and steep slopes that form part of the Sycamore Canyon drainage system, and boasts magnificent vistas of Boney Mountain, the Pacific Ocean and Anacapa Island.

On January 8, 2008, at the Joint Special Meeting of the Thousand Oaks City Council, Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency Board of Directors and Conejo Recreation and Park District Board of Directors, the three agencies voted unanimously to endorse the revised Conceptual Plan for Rancho Potrero, as recommended by the Focus Group and the Intergovernmental Relations Committee on December 5, 2007.

In a separate decision, the City Council voted unanimously to initiate the pre-zoning process to designate 306 acres of Rancho Potrero as Open Space and 20 acres (the existing equestrian center) to Public, Quasi-Public and Institutional Lands and Facilities.

The key features of the revised Conceptual Plan are:

  • Improvements at Area 1 (Olympia Farms) will include a landscaped picnic grove (no shade structure), native plant garden, ride-in horse corral, and outdoor classroom (benches only); there will be no public vehicular access or parking at Area 1.

  • Area 10, which is on the east side of Rancho Potrero adjacent to the National Park Service (NPS)'s Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa property, will contain a 60-person rustic picnic structure, a trailhead, and restrooms. Parking for Area 10 will be provided through a minor expansion of the existing NPS parking lot adjacent to Area 10. An unpaved service road from the NPS parking lot to Area 10 will be constructed, which will be used for maintenance and drop-off purposes only.

  • A 30-vehicle lot for trailhead parking will be constructed at Area 5.

  • The trails and other scattered day-use picnic tables proposed in the original Concept Plan remain unchanged.
Staff will now move forward with preparing the draft Rancho Potrero Specific Plan and environmental document and processing the pre-zoning request. There will be further opportunities for public review and comment as these documents are presented and discussed at future public meetings.


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