Developer Files Suit Over Agency’s Land Purchase

A developer has filed suit against the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District over the water agency’s purchase of a 492-acre parcel of land near Westlake Village Reservoir.

Village Properties, which is affiliated with the Baldwin Co., alleges in a lawsuit filed this week in Los Angeles Superior Court that the conservancy and water district violated an option agreement giving their company first chance to purchase the parcel. The developers contend they spent more than $2.5 million preparing the land for development.

“The suit is consistent with our long-asserted claim that we have rights to the property . . . we plan to defend those rights,” said Robert Burns, president of Baldwin’s Los Angeles/Ventura division. “We’re going to fight this battle for as long and hard as we have to. We’re not going to simply roll over.”

The water district paid the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $6.3 million for a site where Village Properties had planned to develop 330 luxury homes on Westlake Vista.

Water district officials maintain that development of the land could have resulted in the contamination of the 9,800-acre-foot reservoir, which provides tap water for homes in Calabasas, Agoura Hills and the Westlake Village areas.

Bobbie Wymer, a district spokeswoman, declined to comment on the lawsuit, which lists her agency, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority as defendants.

Liz Cheadle, an attorney for the conservancy, said her agency has referred the case to the attorney general’s office, which represents the conservancy.

“We think it (the lawsuit) is completely without merit,” Cheadle said.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy agreed to pay half of the $6.3-million price tag in exchange for 235 acres of the Westlake Vista property and 237 additional acres of water district property.

The conservancy maintains that the land is crucial to protecting the Lyon’s pentachaeta, an aster with yellow flowers, and the Santa Monica Mountains Dudleya, a rare succulent under consideration for threatened status by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The lawsuit asks the court to bar the sale of the property and to rule that the developers have first claim to the land, which should be sold to them under the same terms that the water district received. It also seeks an unspecified amount of general and punitive damages.

The lawsuit also alleges that city officials in Westlake Village may change the zoning, preventing the planned development and reducing the land’s value by at least $9 million.