Developer to Pay Off Delinquent Property Tax Bill Over 5 Years

A development company trying to build 3,221 homes near Moorpark College has agreed to pay the county $1.4 million in overdue property taxes and penalties--but not all at once.

Messenger Investment Co. of Irvine has worked out a five-year payment schedule with the Ventura County tax collector’s office, allowing the company to pay 20% of the total bill each year. Company Vice President Gary Austin hand-delivered the first installment--a $408,071 check--Thursday.

Messenger’s tax bill had been building for five years, as the company failed to pay property taxes on 4,000 acres it hopes to turn into the Hidden Creek Ranch housing development. Had the company not paid by Monday, the county could have auctioned off the land to cover the bill, said Assistant County Tax Collector John McKinney.

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Austin said the company held off paying the tax as a way to funnel as much money as possible into the process of seeking city approval for Hidden Creek--paying for environment and economic reports, as well as the city’s time spent evaluating the project.

“We’ve always said it was a business decision on our part to allocate all the funds to the entitlement process as long as we could,” he said. “You have only so many dollars to work with, and real estate [development] takes a long, long time to get approval, so you have to decide where to spend the money.”

Company officials also complained that the county’s assessment of the property’s value was too high. After reviewing their appeal, county officials reduced the assessment from $25.4 million to $11.4 million for the 1995-96 tax year, said county Assessor Glenn Gray.

Messenger’s delinquent taxes had raised concerns in Moorpark that the developer did not have enough money to carry on with the project, which if approved, could increase the city’s population by a third.

“You could end up with a white elephant, it’s always possible,” said Roseann Mikos, a member of a local environmental group and vocal critic of the Hidden Creek project. “I don’t think any of us knows the financial situation of that company,” she said.

Mayor Paul Lawrason said that although council members had expressed the same concerns, he believes the firm is sound and committed to the project.

“They’ve made a substantial investment in it already, in the preliminary work they’ve done,” he said. “The organization seems to be sturdy.”

Austin said that although the tax bills are steep, the company can afford them.

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Big as the individual payments may be, McKinney said the payment plan worked out between the county and the developer is not unusual, for companies or for individuals. The county tax collector currently has about 300 such plans, out of the 227,000 taxed parcels in Ventura County. They are, McKinney said, a better way to collect money owed than resorting to an auction.

“This is the best thing we can think could happen,” he said.

The Moorpark Planning Commission will discuss the Hidden Creek project on July 22.