Council to Consider $1 Lease for Museum

The Ventura County Discovery Center, a children’s science museum proposed for Thousand Oaks, would receive a $1 lease at the Civic Arts Plaza and an $80,000 loan under a proposal going before the Thousand Oaks City Council tonight.

City Manager Grant Brimhall is recommending that the council approve a request by the backers of the Discovery Center for office space as well as money to fund a marketing and design study needed for fund-raising.

The nonprofit group is asking to take over the office space recently vacated by the Alliance for the Arts, the Civic Arts Plaza’s fund-raising arm, for $1 a year. It would pay its own telephone bills.

The group is also asking for an $80,000 start-up loan. Brimhall noted in a city report that Thousand Oaks lent the Alliance for the Arts $250,000 when it was launching its efforts. The money was later repaid with interest. Brimhall said the Discovery Center is a similar case.

The City Council has decided to consider allowing the group to lease for $1 some city-owned land next to the Civic Arts Plaza for the site of the museum. City leaders also plan to make sure that whoever develops the vacant land across from City Hall and the theater complex builds a parking garage that would accommodate museum visitors.