Fight Brewing Over Massive Development in Moorpark : Growth: Opponents of the Hidden Creek Ranch project say that an influx of 10,000 residents would tax public services and ruin the small-town atmosphere. The first hearing is tonight.

For the past two weeks, Tim Kelly has been knocking on doors, warning people about their new neighbors--all 10,000 of them.

They would come with the Hidden Creek Ranch development, which could one day increase the size of Moorpark by more than a third. For now, it’s just a set of plans and an environmental report.

And on the day of the city’s first public hearing on the project, there continue to be rumblings about “out-of-control growth” and “the death of small-town atmosphere.”

Proposed by the Messenger Investment Co. of Irvine, the development calls for about 3,200 homes on 4,300 acres behind Moorpark College and the Campus Park neighborhood. If approved, the project is expected to cost more than $1 billion and take about 12 years to complete.

“I moved from the San Fernando Valley to get away from things like this,” Kelly said. “I don’t want to lose our small-town rural environment.”

Kelly and other residents have spent the past two weekends handing out information about the development and encouraging residents to attend tonight’s meeting.

“I’m worried,” Kelly said. “Most people just seem unaware not just about how many homes are planned but even that it’s going to be built in the first place.”

Kelly has knocked on more than 200 doors, talking to neighbors about the development that is even larger than the controversial Ahmanson mini-city proposed in the Simi Hills.

He said many of the residents he has spoken to are worried that with the influx of so many families local schools will become overcrowded, the air will be more polluted and traffic will be a mess. The project is expected to bring 10,000 people to the town of 28,000.

The development has been in the planning stages for more than five years. A 2,000-page draft Environmental Impact Report on the project has just been issued, and tonight’s hearing before the Planning Commission is the first of what is expected to be several on the project.

The commission will incorporate all the public comments as well as statements from various agencies into a final environmental report. In November, the commission will hold hearings on the specifics of the project, such as the number of homes and where they would be located on the property.

If after the public hearings the Planning Commission and the City Council give their stamp of approval to the development, the city will go to the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission to ask for approval to annex the property, which is not yet in the city limits.

The Messenger Investment Co.’s Hidden Creek Ranch project is one of four proposed housing developments pending before the city that have the potential to make Moorpark once again one of the fastest-growing communities in Ventura County over the next decade.

Messenger officials said they plan to put hundreds of millions of dollars into the development to ensure that local schools won’t be overwhelmed and that the environmental impact from the project will be minimal.

The developers may build four to six schools, including a middle school and possibly a high school. As further enticement, they are offering to put about 2,000 acres into permanent open space, which could be incorporated into the Happy Camp Canyon Regional Park, said Gary Austin, the company’s vice president.

The Messenger Co. has paid a private consulting firm about $650,000 to conduct the environmental impact report. Austin said that the company was very eager to hear from residents.

“We’ve been working on this for almost seven years and all I can say is we’ve wanted this to happen for a while,” he said. “Finally the public at large will get a chance to be a part of this process.”

According to the environmental report, the massive project and the influx of people it brings could have a big impact on the local water supply, increase traffic and destroy hundreds of oak trees on the property.

But the study also states that Messenger has several ways of addressing those potential effects, including improving existing roads to deal with the traffic, using reclaimed water for irrigation and building around sensitive oak groves.

Still, environmentalists are concerned, said Dawn Mortara, a member of the Moorpark Chapter of the Ventura County Environmental Coalition.

“It’s an extremely large project,” said Mortara, who lives on Grimes Canyon Road.

“There are just major concerns about how such a large development could adversely affect traffic, air quality and wildlife.”

Mortara said that the vacant, rolling hillsides, which are now used as a wildlife corridor, would be lost entirely as would substantial amounts of native vegetation.

“It just brings up a lot of questions about what would happen to the rural atmosphere most people want to protect,” she said.

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Proposed Moorpark Addition

The public hearing on the Hidden Creek Ranch project by Messenger Investment Co. is scheduled for 7 tonight at Moorpark City Hall. The Planning Commission will also look at an adjacent development of about 260 upscale homes.