MOORPARK : Council Criticizes County Land Policy

The Moorpark City Council has denounced a proposed change in county land policy that would force a city seeking to expand its sphere of influence to give up as much land as it gets.

“The idea that they have put forth is not acceptable to the city, and I think we need to voice that opinion,” Mayor Paul Lawrason said.

Council members agreed at Wednesday’s council meeting to draft a letter to the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission, known as LAFCO, and to send representatives to its Nov. 18 meeting, when the policy changes will be considered.

Because Moorpark’s sphere of influence is identical to its existing boundaries, the proposal would force the city to surrender land within its borders if it wanted to expand its sphere.

Councilman Scott Montgomery, who volunteered to attend the LAFCO meeting with Lawrason, called the proposed change a “blatant power grab” and said it “takes the decision-making ability away from we the people that are here locally.”

Russ Baggerly, an aide to Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, who jointly suggested the new policy with Supervisor John Flynn, said the land swap idea is only one of the things that LAFCO is considering in an attempt to protect the rural nature of the county.

“I think the main fear from cities is that they’re not going to be able to expand, and that’s not the intent,” Baggerly said. “The intent is to prevent . . . urban sprawl.”

Since so much of Moorpark is undeveloped land, the concern among city officials may be premature, Baggerly said. Moorpark officials and the Messenger Investment Co. are preparing to ask LAFCO to expand the city’s sphere of influence to include nearly 4,000 acres northeast of the city that Messenger owns and wants to develop.

In an interview outside the council meeting, Messenger Vice President Gary Austin criticized the proposed change. “I think it’s impractical, I think it’s unworkable and I think it’s polarizing the county against the cities,” Austin said. “They’re trying to limit urban sprawl and create open space. But that open space is on paper--it’s not accessible to the public.”