City Protests County Funding Proposal to Repair Moorpark Road : Thousand Oaks: Officials oppose plan to improve a section of the street outside the city limits rather than the Norwegian Grade.

In yet another battle traced to state cutbacks, Thousand Oaks is protesting Ventura County’s proposal to spend more than $400,000 on a project to improve a section of Moorpark Road north of a stretch originally earmarked for the money.

Rather than improve the Norwegian Grade between Calle Contento and Santa Rosa Road, county officials are proposing to use the money on a section of road just north of the grade to Tierra Rejada Road. The section now proposed for improvement is outside city limits, a fact that does not sit well with Thousand Oaks officials.

Moreover, Thousand Oaks officials say the $430,000 the county intends to use was specifically set aside for the Norwegian Grade in the form of a $500-per-lot assessment levied on Santa Rosa Valley residents.

“Diversion of these trust funds is unfair to motorists and bicyclists of the city and the Santa Rosa Valley,” Mayor Jaime Zukowski wrote in a letter addressed to Supervisor Maggie Kildee, chairwoman of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. The Thousand Oaks City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved mailing the letter to Kildee.

But a county official contends that the money can be used on any road project the county deems most beneficial to the Santa Rosa Valley.

“It’s not a diversion,” said William (Butch) Britt, Ventura County deputy director of public works.

Britt said Santa Rosa Valley residents will benefit from the new plan. More important, the county needs the money in order to receive more than $2.8 million in matching federal funds for the project, which would widen the road, straighten two blind curves, add paved shoulders and install a traffic light at the intersection of Santa Rosa and Moorpark roads.

The plan city officials favor, however, would essentially add bicycle lanes to the nearly two-mile-long Norwegian Grade and would require another $1 million to complete.

“Bicycle lanes are nice,” Britt said. “But it doesn’t do anything for the road itself.”

Britt said that with dwindling state funds and more money flowing into mass transportation, officials were forced to make a priority list when drawing up road improvement plans.

He said the section the county proposed to repair is more in need of improvement than Norwegian Grade.

“If we had unlimited funds we could do everything,” he said. “Unfortunately, we are scrambling for money.”

But Thousand Oaks officials said the $430,000 is not being spent as intended. The city is preparing a long-range road improvement plan that identifies projects and their funding sources. City officials had hoped to include the Norwegian Grade project and the $430,000 would be included in that long-range plan.

Concluding her letter to Supervisor Kildee, Zukowski wrote that the county’s decision to spend the money on the new project is “inappropriate (and) untimely.”

The Board of Supervisors is expected to take action on the new plan at its meeting Monday.