WOODLAND HILLS : Warner Ridge Dirt Removal to Begin

The controversial removal of 425,000 cubic yards of dirt from the planned Warner Ridge housing development to the Pierce College farm will begin by Nov. 18, an attorney for the developer said Monday.

“We hope to start sooner: this week or early next week,” said Robert McMurry, attorney for Warner Ridge Partners. “But the college asked us to give them the absolute latest date we would begin moving dirt, so we gave them a conservative estimate.”

The project, which will involve more than 30,000 truckloads of dirt hauled from Warner Ridge onto the adjacent farmland, was scheduled to begin Oct. 18.

“We did start preparing to move dirt at that time,” McMurry said. “There were various rodent and pest control measures, and court proceedings slowed us down.”

The dirt will be placed on about one-fifth of the 200-acre farm. The fill project was opposed by the Coalition to Save Pierce College Farm, a group of local residents, environmentalists and others, who filed a lawsuit contending that the massive soil transfer would upset the natural balance of the farm.

A judge temporarily blocked the project, then allowed it to proceed after the developer agreed not to use rodent poisons on the Pierce property. McMurry said poison-treated topsoil from Warner Ridge has been scraped off and will be left at the construction site.

Under the contract for the project, the financially struggling school will receive $1.03 million when “the first spoonful of dirt arrives on the farm,” McMurry said. The developer also has agreed to pay for more than $1 million worth of drainage work and other repairs to the Pierce property.

Pierce College Vice President Donald Love said administrators are eager for the project to begin, to avoid moving soil during the rainy season.

“If it rains on our parade, the project can’t move ahead,” Love said. “So we want the thing to get going as much as the developer.”

The fill project is expected to take about 10 weeks, after which the land will be reseeded with tall grass for grazing animals, Love said.