MOORPARK : Planners OK Law to Protect Ridgelines

A new law to protect Moorpark hillsides and ridgelines has been approved by the Planning Commission and sent to the City Council.

The proposed ordinance, unanimously passed by planners this week, would allow development on slopes with up to 20% grades; a perfectly vertical cliff has a gradient of 100%. But the city would severely limit the number of homes on slopes of between 20% and 50%, Commissioner Ted Martens said.

“I think the most important thing about this ordinance is that people understand it is not meant to be a growth-control ordinance,” he said.

Martens said the new law is meant to protect steep slopes from erosion and to maintain the view of the ridgelines that dominate the horizon on the north side of town.

Developers with projects before the city said they liked the long-awaited ordinance.

“The approach taken by the city on this has been pretty logical,” said Gary Austin, vice president of Messenger Investment Corp., which plans 3,221 homes on the city’s northeast edge.

The ordinance is more lenient than similar measures in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, commission Chairman Michael Wesner said. “In some respects, it is more lenient and in others it is not,” he said.

Wesner said the new ordinance is stricter in the setback rules for homes near ravines and barrancas, but more lenient about the steepness of the slopes on which homes may be built.

He said rules to protect the city’s ridgelines have been discussed since 1987. But the City Council did not direct planners to draw up an ordinance until last year.

No date has been set for City Council consideration.