Hotel, Apartments to Replace Defunct School in Newbury Park

A developer has proposed new uses for an obsolete school in Newbury Park while preserving the historic value of the buildings, which date back nearly a century. According to a report by the Acorn, Daylight Thousand Oaks LLC has submitted a rendering for apartments and a hotel planned for the site of the Timber School location at Kelley and Newbury roads. Agoura Hills firm PK: Architecture was selected to design the development. According to the report, the owners of the long-running school property could not secure commercial tenants, so they want to develop the site into a complex that would include boutique housing and lodging. The plan would be to create a pair of developments — a 201-unit apartment complex and a 120-room hotel — on the parcel, located near the 101 freeway. Daylight plans to preserve the school’s original buildings in the process, incorporating what was established as an administrative office with a bell tower in 1924 and a 1948-built auditorium. The Daylight plan proposes to convert the 95-year-old administration building into the apartment complex’s rental office while transforming the auditorium into a community room and entertainment venue that will be accessible by both residents and the general public. Part of the administrative building on Newbury Road would be devoted to office space for Conejo Valley Historical Society, according to the plans. The reason securing commercial tenants has failed, according to the property owner, is due to the fact that Caltrans refused to remove a nearby sound wall aimed at reducing freeway noise for residents of single-family homes along Galway Lane, thus complicating freeway access. Negotiations regarding which company would operate the proposed boutique hotel are ongoing.