Vote Delayed as Mayor Recuperates

With Moorpark’s mayor recovering from a medical procedure to clear his arteries, the City Council has decided to wait at least one week to vote on a luxury home development with two golf courses.

Mayor Paul Lawrason missed Wednesday night’s council meeting while he recovered from the angioplasty procedure, City Councilman Bernardo Perez said.

Lawrason underwent the procedure on Tuesday after experiencing chest pains during a walk with his wife last weekend, said his wife, Connie Lawrason. It is the third time that Lawrason has had to undergo angioplasty, which requires a catheter to be inserted into a blood vessel to clear the arteries.

Although Lawrason attended a council meeting right after the last procedure, he said at the time that he was in some discomfort.

Anticipating that he would not be able to make the Wednesday meeting, Perez said that Lawrason and the rest of the council decided at a special meeting Monday to extend the deadline for a final vote on a 216-home development planned for the city’s north side.

The council was scheduled to vote Wednesday on the planned, 655-acre community being proposed by the Westlake-based Bollinger Development Company. The decision will also give council members more time to review the most recent changes in the developer’s plans before a March 27 vote.

The land is now zoned for one home every five acres, but the Bollinger proposal calls for building homes on one-acre plots.

In early December, the City Council approved an environmental report for the project--known as Moorpark Country Estates--despite objections from several local residents who said it would damage sensitive natural habitat and undermine the rural character of their neighborhood.