Sierra Club Seeks to Halt Development : Environment: The group, in an appeal with state court, contends that a Newbury Park housing project will destroy a wildlife habitat.

Prolonging a nearly three-year legal battle, Sierra Club attorneys are asking the California State Court of Appeals to stop construction of a Newbury Park housing development that they say will destroy a wildlife habitat.

The appeal filed late last week is an attempt to persuade the state court to overturn a Ventura County Superior Court ruling issued in May. In that ruling, Judge Barbara Lane rejected a lawsuit in which the group claimed that Thousand Oaks overlooked state environmental regulations when it approved the Dos Vientos development.

“We filed it for the same reason that we filed the lawsuit,” Sierra Club attorney Frank Angel said. “We don’t think public agencies should misuse development agreements to bypass their duties under state laws.”

For the Sierra Club and its supporters, the rolling hillsides and former pasture lands of the Dos Vientos site represent rich wildlife habitat, including a corridor for animals traveling to and from the parklands of the Santa Monica Mountains.

To the developers, Dos Vientos represents future homes for hundreds of families. And they say years of grazing and horseback riding have already turned the land from pristine habitat to well-traversed pasture.

“It’s not by any means a wildlife habitat area,” said Wayne Jett, attorney for Operating Engineers, the firm developing the tract.

Jett called the Sierra Club’s last-minute appeal “an irresponsible extended delaying” of the building process.

“Their appeal was filed on the very last possible day, as always,” Jett said. “It just means more delay, more delays.”

Since the Sierra Club became involved in trying to stop the project in January, 1993, Jett said, Operating Engineers has lost “several million dollars” on delays caused by litigation.

The 220 residences would be finished by now if it were not for the group’s efforts, he said. “We’re talking about whether homes get built so that families can have better lives.”

But Jett said the environmentalists’ latest legal action will have little effect on plans to begin grading the Dos Vientos site.

Operating Engineers is within days of receiving a permit to begin work on a detention basin, according to Gil Pableo, the city engineer working on the project.

“It should be later this week or early next week,” Pableo said.

A second permit to grade the housing site grounds will very likely be issued within a few weeks, Pableo said.

Sierra Club attorneys said the group does not intend to ask for a court order to stop the grading for the debris basin.

“They have to complete grading of the detention basin first,” Angel said. “That should take them at least two months, and we didn’t sue on that. The debris basin is not part of the lawsuit.”

But Jett said grading on both sites will be done practically in tandem; once the debris basin is started, work on the housing sites will begin soon after.

“It’s our intention that we will be grading the tract shortly as well,” Jett said.

Pableo said the city requires the basin to be excavated and functional before other grading can begin, but said it does not need to be completed.

That may cause additional legal fireworks, according to Sierra Club attorney Stephan Volker.

“Our information in the past is the developer cannot start grading on the project until the basin is finished,” Volker said. “It makes sense, because once you start grading you need the debris basin. I’m a little surprised and puzzled.” If the developer plans to start working on the home sites before the basin is finished, he added, “we will certainly file for a stay.”

The Sierra Club has three months to work on a brief to the state court explaining its appeal. But by then, Operating Engineers hopes to have the land ready for spring construction.

“Once we commence with grading we expect to be completed before the rainy season starts in November,” Jett said.