MOORPARK : Moderately Priced Townhouses OKd

The Moorpark City Council unanimously approved the construction of 196 moderately priced townhouses in the Mountain Meadows neighborhood despite some homeowners’ complaints that the project will lower their property values.

The council voted 5 to 0 in favor of a proposal by Santa Monica-based Urban West Communities Inc. to develop the townhouses at Countryhill Road and Mountain Trail Street.

Five Mountain Meadows homeowners asked the council to either reject the building proposal or insist that Urban West increase the average size of the one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The smallest townhouses will have a floor area of 1,095 square feet.

“They are too small, too many and their price is unfavorable to the overall value of the neighborhood,” resident Janis Isaac said.

Isaac and other residents said the townhouses, which would be expected to sell for about $130,000 to $170,000, would lower their homes’ resale values. Single-family houses in the area have market values ranging from $250,000 to $500,000.

But council members said the project was needed to buttress the city’s stock of affordable housing.

“It is going to give us diversity,” Mayor Paul W. Lawrason Jr. said. “It’s going to give us a complement of housing which we sorely need.”

Urban West spokesman Tom Zanic said that although the townhouses may fit Ventura County’s definition of affordable housing, their construction will not be subsidized by government agencies and they will be sold at market rates.