Big Builder Exempt From Moorpark’s Growth Law

A Ventura County judge ruled Friday that Moorpark’s largest housing project is exempt from the city’s 1986 slow-growth law, clearing the way for faster-than-expected completion of the 2,500-home Mountain Meadows development.

Superior Court Judge Edwin M. Osborne ruled in a lawsuit filed against the city earlier this year by Urban West Communities, a Santa Monica development company.

Osborne found that Urban West received the necessary government approvals to complete Mountain Meadows before passage of Moorpark’s slow-growth law.

That law, approved by voters as Measure F in November, 1986, limits the number of city-issued building permits to 250 a year. Building permits are allocated among competing developers by the Moorpark City Council based on such criteria as project design and the amount of public amenities provided.

The judge’s ruling allows Urban West to apply for as many building permits as it wants without having to compete with other developers, said Michael Berger, attorney for Urban West. Those permits should be granted routinely by the city because Urban West already has zoning and other project approvals, he said.

Project Already Approved

Urban West argued that approval by Ventura County and Moorpark to build the housing project over a 10-year period created a binding contract between the developer and the city that could not be changed by later passage of a growth-control law.

But attorney Virginia Pesola, who represented Moorpark in the case, told the judge that no court has decided whether cities can be bound by contract over future zoning and land-use decisions. She also argued that no formal contract existed between Urban West and the city.

“The city’s position is that Urban West is subject to Measure F and therefore must compete equally with all other developers for building permits,” Moorpark City Atty. Cheryl J. Kane said in court.

In the same election in which the growth-control measure was passed, voters defeated ratification of a formal development agreement between the city and Urban West that would have exempted the developer from any future city growth laws.

Kane said after the hearing that the Moorpark City Council will decide whether to appeal the ruling. Council members reached Friday withheld comment on the ruling until Wednesday’s council meeting.

Under the city’s growth-control law, which expires in 1994, Urban West could have lost much of its investment before completing the remaining 1,050 homes in Mountain Meadows, said Thomas A. Zanic, the firm’s vice president. To meet consumer demand and loan obligations, the firm needs more than 300 building permits a year over the next three years, he said. The firm received 53 permits in 1987 under the city’s growth-control law, he said.

Urban West had agreed to contribute $28 million in public improvements, about three times the amount required for the project by law, based on project approvals by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in 1981 and in 1983 by the Moorpark City Council after the city was incorporated, Osborne said in his ruling.

Those investments were made based on approval to build Mountain Meadows over 10 years, Osborne said. The city’s growth-control law could have delayed completion of the project indefinitely, Urban West officials said.

Urban West officials have not decided whether to drop a second lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the city’s growth-control law, Zanic said. That lawsuit alleges that the city’s growth-control law allows taking of property without just compensation, he said.

About 1,200 homes of the 848-acre Mountain Meadows project have been occupied since its 1983 ground breaking, Zanic said. About 250 homes are under construction, but building permits for 1,050 more homes are still needed, he said.

If the lawsuit had failed, the firm would have sought recovery of about $17 million in cash and property from the city, which is the cost of public improvements not required by law but made in exchange for approval of the project, Zanic said.

Voters approved the growth-control measure to slow the rate of development in the fast-growing city, which now has about 20,000 residents.