Moorpark Council Accused of Trying to Thwart Growth Lid

Slow-growth advocates in Moorpark are accusing the City Council of hurrying to approve a completion plan for a huge housing project before an election in November on whether to limit home construction to 250 units a year.

Leaders of the Committee for Managed Growth are opposed to City Council approval of a contract, called a development agreement, now being negotiated with Urban West Communities of Santa Monica for the Mountain Meadows tract.

The developer broke ground in 1983 on the 2,500-unit project, which will spread over 848 acres. About 2,000 units remain to be built--the equivalent of eight years of permitted growth if the measure passes.

Situated about two miles west of the Moorpark Freeway near Los Angeles Avenue in southern Moorpark, Mountain Meadows is a planned community of mostly single-family homes. It will be the largest in Moorpark when completed.

‘Subversion Attempt’

Slow-growth activists contend that signing a completion agreement now would undermine the intent of the initiative measure.

“It’s a blatant and obvious attempt at subverting the initiative,” Bob Crockford, president of the Committee for Managed Growth, said. “We’ll go to court if necessary.”

Council members say that securing a development agreement, the first in the city, would require the developer to build or pay for a long list of public amenities on a fixed timetable. That would ensure that Urban West will provide the services regardless of turns in the housing market, they say.

Urban West, in exchange, would receive a virtual guarantee that it can build the entire project free of new terms from the city.

Called a Coincidence

Council members said it is only a coincidence that the development agreement, scheduled for a hearing before the city Planning Commission on March 26, is facing approval so close to the election.

The rancor surrounding the growth issue suggests that it will dominate this year’s two council races. Seats held by Leta Yancy-Sutton and Albert Prieto will come up for election.

Crockford said slow-growth activists will campaign for candidates who support the initiative. No current council member does.

Increasingly bitter exchanges have pitted a united City Council against Crockford’s group.

“The paranoid committee thinks we’re pushing this development through to beat the initiative,” Councilman Danny Woolard said.

‘A Siege Mentality’

Crockford countered: “They have almost a siege mentality. I’m embarrassed to have them as a City Council.”

Under the probable terms of the agreement, Urban West would provide $3.8 million for traffic improvements, including money for the construction of a four-lane bridge across the Arroyo Simi, according to City Manager Steven Kueny. Bridge construction could begin by June.

The 12-year agreement is also likely to call for the developer to provide school sites and a $1.4-million park, Kueny said. The builder will probably have to also waive its right to increase the densities of the apartment and condominium buildings, Kueny said.

Untested Area of Law

City Atty. Cheryl J. Kane has told the council that the legal relationship between development agreements and ballot initiatives restricting growth is unknown as it represents a new and untested area of conflict in California law.

Council members argue that the agreement will provide the kind of planning and infrastructure cited by slow-growth supporters as lacking in earlier city-approved developments.

“This plan addresses everything the initiative claims to address,” Woolard said.

Since mid-1983, the city has approved construction of about 5,000 dwelling units. Roughly half have been built. Moorpark’s population has tripled in 10 years, from 5,000 in 1975 to about 15,000.

No Organized Opposition

The initiative drive evolved from worries among some residents that Moorpark’s residential developments are outstripping its public services, crowding its schools and roads and disrupting its semi-rural way of life.

Opposition to the initiative is expected to come from Moorpark businesses, builders and the Ventura County chapter of the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California. However, no group has as yet organized an effort to fight the measure.

Mountain Meadows was first approved by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in 1981 when Moorpark was still unincorporated.

Negotiations for a development agreement between the city and Urban West began in 1984, one year after the city was incorporated, city staff members and the developer say.