MOORPARK : City Might Sue in Chimney Cap Feud

Moorpark city officials will notify a developer this week that its refusal to replace 110 decorative chimney covers violates a contract with the city and could provoke a lawsuit.

More than a year ago, Pardee Construction Co. of Los Angeles removed the covers from homes in the Northview tract after officials blamed four Moorpark house fires on the covers.

The covers or “shrouds” are sheet-metal skirts added to the chimney to hide the spark arrester. Certain shrouds can force heat and soot back into the chimneys, drying out their outer wood frames and making them more flammable over time, officials have said.

In February, city officials pressured Urban West Communities to upgrade the shrouds on about 300 residences in the Moorpark Meadows neighborhood after homeowners complained.

In recent months, Northview homeowners have told council members that while Pardee removed the shrouds in April, 1990, the spark arresters are exposed. The arresters look unsightly and allow soot to accumulate, they said.

A representative for Pardee told city officials that no company manufactures a shroud for the type of spark arrester used and that installing new shrouds would first require replacing the spark arrester and other parts of the chimney.

However, residences without shrouds violate an architectural plan approved by the city before Pardee built the tract, and an unwillingness to change the chimneys may end in legal action, City Manager Steve Kueny said Wednesday.