THOUSAND OAKS : City Appeals Order to Pay Extra Dam Costs

Concerned about the price the city will pay for saving a few dozen oak trees, Thousand Oaks officials are appealing a recent federal court ruling that ordered the city to pick up the extra costs incurred for changes in a developer’s project.

The project, a flood-control dam and basin on the Lang Ranch Co.’s North Ranch development, is expected to cost at least $4 million and would have destroyed up to 140 ancient oak trees. The City Council approved the project on condition that the developer build a modified version of the basin, saving as many as 60 of the trees.

Lang Ranch officials asked a federal court judge to make the city pay for the entire project, saying the city was imposing unfair restrictions on them. But Judge Dickran Tevrizian declined, ordering instead that the city be responsible only for expenses above and beyond what the developer would have paid for the first version of the project.

City Atty. Mark Sellers said his request for a review of the case by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was “procedural only.”

“Basically, I just want to preserve our rights to appeal this,” he said.

He said he wants the case to be reviewed because he still believes that Lang Ranch should pay for the whole project.

“Lang came to the City Council and they clearly agreed to do Concept B (the modified basin),” he said.

Sellers said the developer has not given him a breakdown of how much the modified version would cost the city.

“Whether it is going to be a dollar or a million dollars I don’t know,” he said. “But they are saying expenses will be quite severe.”