The recent hoopla by those against Measure B, the Thousand Oaks traffic initiative, set for the June 3 election, fails to explain what is really behind their motivations.

Are they really concerned about protecting free enterprise, or Home Depot's development plan at Hampshire Road, or the Do It Center wanting to stifle competition, or about the city losing revenue? Or is it something else, something bigger?

For those who don't know, the City Council can flat out ignore the city's most important governing document, the Thousand Oaks General Plan, and approve large development projects that create unacceptable traffic conditions, those below Level C.

Measure B takes away that power and gives it to the voting public. It's a little measure with a big effect because it stops political corruption and back-room dealing dead in its tracks. Who do you think allowed the horrible traffic because of overdevelopment in the San Fernando Valley: voters or corrupt politicians?

The opponents of Measure B fail to explain that they are really concerned about grandiose plans to completely redevelop Thousand Oaks Boulevard from Duesenberg Drive to Moorpark Road. This proposed project will average 55-foot-high, four-story buildings, some higher, with retail/commercial on bottom and apartments on top. It would change Thousand Oaks forever. Its traffic impacts make it subject to Measure B and could be rejected by the voters.

Many would agree that Thousand Oaks Boulevard can use some improvement. However, it is doubtful that most residents would easily approve sweeping changes that would morph our quaint bedroom community toward the likes of the San Fernando Valley with more congestion, traffic, crime and big-city problems.

So big and controversial this project will be that the Thousand Oaks Boulevard Improvement District refuses to release its plan for public review. It may do so by the end of this year after, it hopes, Measure B fails at the polls and pro-development council members Jacqui Irwin and Tom Glancy are elected in November. Then, it's business as usual.

Follow the money. Those who want Thousand Oaks Boulevard changed in a big way are the commercial landowners, real-estate developers and other business interests who stand to make millions.

Others are their friends and those who feed at the public trough. Do they care more about traffic impacts and quality of life or lining their own pockets?

Measure B opponents' literature implies the voters will turn down every new development project put before them, including Home Depot, Costco or hospital improvements.

Since we, the voting public, live, work and commute here, shouldn't we have the right to reject bad projects unless the traffic impacts are properly mitigated?

If Measure B passes, then I predict that bad projects will become good projects prior to any public vote. Don't believe the Chicken-Little hysteria that you will be bombarded with. Any measure that eliminates back-room dealing between developers and elected officials is good law. Let the people decide whether they want to sit in traffic, not a select few.

— John Fonti lives in Thousand Oaks.