NEWBURY PARK : Residents Seek Help in Blocking Project

Angered by plans for a housing project in their neighborhood, Newbury Park residents are seeking the help of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in filing a lawsuit against the city aimed at blocking the development.

The residents said they plan to sue the city for approving the 220-home Dos Vientos subdivision, an agreement they say ignores the project’s adverse effects on the environment. Residents said that the Sierra Club has agreed to take the case, providing that they raise $15,000 to pay for the San Francisco-based group’s travel and paperwork expenses.

Sierra Club officials said they are close to reaching an agreement thatwould allow them to represent the residents.

“Typically this is a group that only gets involved with environmental issues of extraordinary national significance,” said Newbury Park resident Michelle Koetke. “So I think it’s remarkable that they have come to Thousand Oaks to look at this threat.”

A legal battle would probably focus on the city’s position that a previously arranged agreement with the builders of Dos Vientos precluded the city from rejecting the project, despite the damage it would have on wildlife, said Cassandra Auerbach, a representative of the local Sierra Club chapter.

The 220-home development was approved in July as the first phase of a 2,350-home project that the city will allow to be built in Newbury Park.

In exchange, developers Operating Engineers and Courtly Homes agreed to pay the city $12.6 million for the right to build. Developers also agreed to preserve 1,000 acres as open space and to set aside money to build parks, schools and other amenities.

Koetke said that her group would need to raise the $15,000 for expenses by Sunday for the Sierra Club to get involved.

“I think we can do it,” she said. “It will prove to the City Council that they did not win over the hearts and minds of the public.”