Thousand Oaks Downtown Core Master Plan

Thousand Oaks is a planned suburban community exemplifying the best of mid-Twentieth Century planning trends related to automobility, ex-urban family lifestyles, and respect for a formerly rural environment. Not surprising, the City downtown is a quiet strip much of the day and night. Its attractions, including a City Hall, Civic Arts Plaza, and shopping center, draws users, but does not leverage their activities to establish a vital town center. City leaders now seek to create a Downtown that both exemplifies the City’s traditional ideals as well as new trends that will attract a younger demographic vital to the City’s future success. They sought, through a master plan effort, to direct appropriate, context-based, intensification and development on City-owned properties, establish an evolved gathering space for City-wide events, and activate sidewalks along the town’s “Main Street.”

 JKA, working as an urban design sub-consultant to planners Raimi + Associates, developed master plan scenarios and design standards and guidelines for the City of Thousand Oaks to facilitate the establishment of a pedestrian-friendly, sidewalk-oriented, downtown. As part of the master plan process, JKA helped organize a charrette and workshops where design alternatives, standards, and guidelines were developed. The office also provided form scenarios for revitalization of City properties and streetscape, and developed concepts for the redesign of the open space fronting both City Hall and Thousand Oaks Blvd.

 Key concepts introduced by JKA include the expansion of the Civic Arts Plaza into the Boulevard, which is re-imagined as a flexible street that can accommodate large festivals, the placement and conceptual design of additional City-owned parking facilities that support Downtown activities, and evolved sidewalk and street wall design standards and guidelines to facilitate pedestrian interest, comfort, and use. The concepts, shaped interactively with input from subject experts, City staff, community members, and City decision-makers, were incorporated into a Master Plan that was adopted by the City Council in June 2018.