City to Refinance Bond to Pay for Flood-Control Project : Thousand Oaks: About $600,000 will be saved on $14-million Lang Ranch funding.

Drawn by low interest rates, the Thousand Oaks City Council has unanimously agreed to refinance a $14-million bond to pay the growing costs of building a flood-control project in the Lang Ranch development.

City officials said late Tuesday night that refinancing the bond will generate $600,000, but they hastened to reassure residents within the bond district that the move will not cost them more money.

“This will not change anybody’s taxes,” said Bob Biery, the city’s finance director.

The bond was issued in 1988 to pay major infrastructure costs associated with the 2,247-home Lang Ranch development at the intersection of Westlake Boulevard and Avenida de Los Arboles.

As part of the development agreement, the Lang Ranch Co. extended Westlake Boulevard several miles using bond-generated funds. The company must also build a debris and retention basin to protect homes downstream from Lang Ranch in the event of heavy rains. Preparations for that project are under way.

There are several reasons to refinance the bonds, city officials said. Interest rates are lower; in 1988 the bond was financed at 7.5%, but now it can be refinanced at 6.5%.

And the money is needed to pay the extra costs that have cropped up, both in the extension of Westlake Boulevard, where unexpected earth movement during construction cost Lang Ranch $1.5 million more than projected, and in the flood basin.

This winter, in order to save a number of old oak trees, the city asked Lang to spread the project over two sites instead of concentrating it in one small canyon. After an appeal to a federal court judge, Lang agreed to build the basin the city wanted, but Thousand Oaks must help pay additional costs associated with it.

That change in plans could be costly. Lang Ranch officials complained to the City Council that dividing the project into two parts will mean digging up an area of already restored wetlands. Measures to save individual trees along the perimeter of the basin will also be expensive.

Biery said the true cost of the project, originally projected at about $3 million, can’t be determined until it goes out to bid. But he said the $600,000 raised by refinancing the bond should cover the extra costs.

“That’s everybody’s hope,” Biery said.

The final reason for refinancing the bond is a little bit of red tape. Even though the purpose of the basin is the same, the scope of the project has been revised from how it was described in the original bond documents.

Legally, the bond document has to be rewritten to reflect that change, which could be done with either an amendment or by refinancing.

Refinancing isn’t free. It will cost the city about $400,000, Biery said, but that still will leave a $600,000 profit.

The amount each taxpayer in the unfinished Lang Ranch neighborhood will pay annually for the bond was established in 1988. Biery said the formula the city used to determine that figure will remain the same, despite the planned refinancing.

Councilwoman Judy Lazar said the $600,000 may even turn out to be surplus, in which case it could be used to reduce the yearly assessment to Lang Ranch residents.