MOORPARK : Plan OKd Near Area Zoned for Animals

The Moorpark Planning Commission has approved a project of 291 houses and condominiums near an older neighborhood on the west side of the city that has traditionally been zoned for horses and other farm animals.

The project, approved Monday night, will include 10 single-family houses and 90 condominiums for Ventura County families that are considered moderate-income households, making $53,240 to $60,500 a year.

The county’s median household income is $48,400, a city official said. The remaining 106 single-family houses and 85 townhouse condominiums will be sold at the prevailing market rate.

Residents of Maureen Lane on Tuesday praised the project’s developer, the Westland Co., for listening to their concerns regarding the separation of the project from their houses.

Westland will create a 20-foot buffer zone to alleviate concerns about farm animals. The company will deed 10 feet to the back of each house on Maureen Lane and then build an eight-foot-high barrier wall between the two areas. On the side of the new project, Westland will build a 10-foot planter with trees.

Despite the buffer zone, residents said they feared that the city might change their zoning, prohibiting farm animals.

“We are worried that the new people won’t like roosters crowing in the morning,” said Leonard Patterson, a Maureen Lane resident. “We want to be sure to keep the zoning for our animals.”

Westland attorney Allen F. Camp told the residents that their fears of a zone change need to be taken up with the Moorpark City Council. To allay residents’ fears, Camp said, Westland would be willing to put a notification on legal documents whenever a house is sold in either tract stating that the Maureen Lane property is zoned for farm animals.