City Says It Lacks Access to Fix Slippery Sidewalk

The Moorpark City Council has refused to fix a slippery sidewalk in the exclusive Mountain Meadows neighborhood where pools of water collect due to poor drainage.

City officials acknowledged that drainage problems make about five feet of the heavily used sidewalk slippery and dangerous. But fixing the problem, which is projected to cost between $5,000 and $10,000, is the responsibility of the homeowners association, council members said Wednesday.

The city does not own the sidewalk and has no right to repair it, Director of Public Works Kenneth C. Gilbert said. The sidewalk, which is along Mountain Meadow Drive in the Willows II housing tract, is owned by the Willows II homeowners association, Gilbert said.

The city has no legal access to the sidewalk or to most of the sidewalks in the sprawling 1,500-home Mountain Meadows neighborhood, Director of Community Development Patrick J. Richards said.

Richards said it is unusual for a city not to have access, or an easement, on private sidewalks. But the county approved the Mountain Meadows development before Moorpark was incorporated in 1983, which may explain why the development plans did not give the city access past the curbs, he said.

The council advised the homeowners association to ask Urban West Corp., the developer of Mountain Meadows, to pay for the repairs.

For the city to help solve future problems with sidewalks, homeowners groups in Mountain Meadows should consider transferring ownership of their sidewalks to the city, or at least granting the city access to the property, council members said.