Property Owners Attack Proposed Moorpark Levies

John Fitch pays about $200 a year in property taxes for his third of an acre on Los Angeles Avenue. The city of Moorpark wants him to pay $10,000 a year for the next 20 years for that same third of an acre.

“When I tell people about this, they say, ‘The city wouldn’t do something like this. They’re stealing your house away,’ ” Fitch told the council Wednesday. “I can’t believe when you see all the facts and figures, that you could do something like this. This is like a bad joke or something.”

The tax increase would result from formation of an assessment district, which the city says is needed to pay for $5 million worth of road widenings, storm drain installation and two traffic lights.

Fitch didn’t have the monopoly on desperation in the first of two hearings on the proposed assessments. Three of the eight affected property owners waited until midnight to plead their cases to the council.

Roger Gisler drove from Placentia to speak on behalf of his 86-year-old mother, who raised her family on four acres in the district before moving to a nursing home.

Gisler’s mother, who now pays $918 a year in property taxes, would be charged $38,000 a year over the next 20 years if the district goes through. “I don’t think any consideration was given to the property owners,” Gisler said after the meeting. “None of us are rich, and I don’t think any of those involved can afford it.”

As now proposed, eight property owners, including two large landowners, are scheduled to pay about $5 million over the next 20 years to pay for the improvements. More than half of that total will be paid by owners of 36 of the proposed district’s 57.6 acres. They want to build a shopping center along Los Angeles Avenue.

But it was three of the smaller property owners who showed up at City Hall on Wednesday to protest the proposed district.

“I have 25,000 square feet, and I’m looking at $227,000,” said Leonard Ojena. “I think I qualify for a little compassion.”

The council will again discuss the matter Jan. 20. After hearing the string of impassioned speakers, some council members said they were reluctant to levy the assessments.

“Those were some compelling presentations that people made last night, and certainly putting myself in their position, I would have reacted the same way,” Mayor Paul Lawrason said Thursday. “Something doesn’t seem to be balanced here.”

New Councilman Patrick Hunter told the property owners that their arguments were “truly compelling” at the meeting. On Thursday, he said he needed to study the issue more before he votes.

“People going from $900 a year to $38,000 a year?” Hunter said. “Would these people truly benefit? Are the numbers equitable?”

The assessment district is being created to help pay for some of the improvements needed as part of the Mission Bell Plaza project, a shopping center that is already partly under construction which includes a Kmart store.

Councilman Scott Montgomery said Thursday that all the property in the proposed district is zoned commercial and will eventually be commercially developed. He said the city was, in essence, asking owners to pay improvement costs that they would eventually be charged when they develop their property.

Still, he said the city may be able to find some way to pay the assessments of property owners with no pending development plans and require them to pay the money back when they either sell or develop their land.