Plans for High-Tech Center Advance

Plans for a “telecommunity center,” a high-tech experiment at the Civic Arts Plaza, are expected to finally get underway now that the Thousand Oaks City Council has decided to hire a consultant to oversee the project.

The City Council voted 4 to 1 this week to hire Ecotek Technology Solutions of Seal Beach for as much as $274,000 to manage the center.

Details remain sketchy about the center, an assorted collection of technological ventures designed to bring businesses, civic groups and government agencies closer together.

One of several such projects the California Department of Transportation has launched throughout the state, the center was initially approved by the council in 1994, but failed to get off the ground due to bureaucratic confusion at Caltrans, according to city officials. An updated, slightly amended plan was approved last year.

Expected to cost more than $1.3 million, the facility will be paid for almost entirely with state and federal funds. The contract for the Seal Beach-based consultant, which was chosen by a citizens’ committee that reviewed a series of proposals, will be paid for by Caltrans.

The telecommunity center will be on a 2,000-square-foot section of the Civic Arts Plaza’s second floor. Thousand Oaks spent $114,000 to prepare the site for the project, but it remains largely vacant.