Moorpark Files Lawsuit Over Caltrans Yard

The city of Moorpark is suing the state over a proposed Department of Transportation maintenance yard that city officials say would blight an area that should showcase their community.

In the suit filed Tuesday in Ventura County Superior Court, the city objects to a study that found that putting a Caltrans maintenance facility on Los Angeles Avenue at the California 23 interchange would be environmentally acceptable.

“We just don’t think it’s appropriate to put there, adjacent to what will be our most important commercial area in the city,” Moorpark Mayor Paul W. Lawrason Jr. said of the proposed Caltrans facility.

Caltrans now operates a maintenance yard on Los Angeles Avenue between Liberty Bell Road and Park Lane, Lawrason said. The agency approached the city more than a year ago to see about moving it away from the commercially active area.

Ross Keeling, a Caltrans maintenance engineer, said that the existing maintenance yard was being squeezed out by development and that the city was not able to help the state find a suitable replacement.

“We couldn’t wait forever, looking for lots,” Keeling said. “After a year or so of this, we had run out of time.”

Despite city-suggested alternatives and nearly a year of negotiations, Caltrans suddenly decided on the parcel near the freeway interchange, Lawrason said.

“We think placing a maintenance facility there would be a disaster. It certainly wouldn’t represent Moorpark very well if the first thing you saw when you got off the freeway was a maintenance yard,” said Councilman Scott Montgomery. “This (suit) has become our only option to try and do something good for the city.”

Caltrans spokeswoman Pat Reid on Wednesday said she had not heard of the suit but acknowledged that the state plans to relocate its Moorpark maintenance yard.