Proposal for 552 Homes Advances

Although a final vote on the project is more than a week away, Moorpark City Council members have reached tentative agreement on some of the thornier details of a plan to build 552 homes in the city’s southeastern corner.

Council members Wednesday tentatively decided not to require Carlsberg Financial Corp. to build private recreational facilities within the development, planned just west of the Moorpark Freeway and north of Tierra Rejada Road.

The city has traditionally required larger housing projects to include such facilities.

Instead, city staff members will negotiate with Carlsberg officials to set a fee, paid by the developer, that will help fund community recreation centers elsewhere in the city.

Council members also decided to require that a homeowners association pay for maintenance of undeveloped land within the project.

Finally, the council rejected the developer’s request to build 5,590 feet of trails instead of the 13,500 feet included in the project’s specific plan. The Moorpark Planning Commission had suggested the trails could be eliminated because they did not give hikers specific destinations, an argument the council rejected.

“The purpose of a trail is to be just that--a trail,” Councilman John Wozniak said. “It doesn’t have to lead anywhere.”

Council members will again review the project’s tentative tract maps Oct. 2. The council already approved the project’s amended specific plan--containing the development’s basic details--in 1994.