Opponents of Housing Project Warn of Fault Line : Thousand Oaks: Residents call the huge Dos Vientos development ‘ill-conceived.’

Punching up their battle against the huge Dos Vientos development, Thousand Oaks residents on Thursday called city leaders immoral for considering allowing homes to be built near an earthquake fault line.

The local branch of the Sierra Club added 200 pages of equally fiery criticism, in a hefty analysis challenging Dos Vientos’ most recent environmental impact report.

Both the residents and the Sierra Club claimed the Dos Vientos project--up to 2,350 houses on a rugged ranch north of Potrero Road--will endanger the health of nearby residents by creating unacceptable traffic, noise and air pollution.

And they blasted a consultant’s proposal to safeguard Dos Vientos houses from potentially dangerous electromagnetic fields by moving power lines across the street to Broome Ranch, a 640-acre wilderness park.

“We think the whole project is ill-conceived,” said Michelle Koetke, a spokeswoman for the group Residents to Preserve Newbury Park. “The land should not be built on.”

The council has already approved a contract guaranteeing developers the right to build 2,350 houses on the rolling foothills of Dos Vientos.

In exchange, the developers will pay the city $12.6 million, along with the standard fees for parks, schools and other services.

The contract gives the council flexibility to shift up to 10% of the houses from one portion of Dos Vientos to another, if the transfer would help preserve the environment.

But city officials have shown little inclination to swerve from the contract’s outline.

“It seems to me, when you have a contract with someone, you’re obligated to stay within the confines of that contract,” Councilman Alex Fiore said.

Council members had a chance to wipe 136 homes from the project last fall, when Courtly Homes, one of the project’s two developers, defaulted on a payment required under the contract. Instead, city leaders chose to mediate the financial dispute.

Eight months later, they still have not selected a mediator.

Council members will get yet another opportunity to review Dos Vientos on July 12, when they hold a public hearing on a tract map detailing the location of 220 houses along Potrero and Lynn roads. Although the contract guarantees the developer the right to build those homes, the city must still approve the placement and design of each unit.

An environmental impact report analyzing the 220-house tract concludes that construction would carry only two significant ill effects: extra noise along Wendy Drive and the loss of wildlife habitat.

“Those don’t seem to be blockbusters,” Fiore said.

To cut noise along Wendy Drive, Councilwoman Judy Lazar suggested installing speed bumps to slow traffic.

But residents are pushing for more.

They want the city to consider canceling the development contract and slashing the number of houses to be built on Dos Vientos.

Because the development agreement was signed in 1990, when environmental information was incomplete, residents contend that the contract cannot be legally binding.

“There are definite health and safety issues here that can’t be slipped under the rug,” Sierra Club leader Cassandra Auerbach said.

The attorney for developer Operating Engineers, Wayne Jett, rejected that theory outright. “The development agreement is certainly binding,” he said.

Yet Councilman Frank Schillo, who helped negotiate the agreement, said he would consider revisiting the contract “if new information came to light about (environmental) effects that could not be mitigated.”

In fact, the contract contains a clause allowing the city to govern Dos Vientos “to the extent reasonably required in order to prevent a condition dangerous to the health and safety of residents of the project or adjoining property.”

In their environmental impact report, the most recent in a series of analyses, the city’s consultants argue that building on Dos Vientos “poses no hazard” because it appears to be inactive. As a safeguard against possible shaking, they recommended that all homes remain at least 20 feet from the fault line.