Dallas Firm Signs Deal to Build Homes

After languishing for months, a 216-home development project in northern Moorpark may finally move forward, now that a Dallas-based firm has agreed to build it.

Centex Homes on Thursday signed an agreement with developer Paul Bollinger to build Moorpark Country Club Estates, located between Grimes Canyon and Walnut Canyon roads, said Jay Kopel a Centex division president.

“This is a really unique project that will be a real asset to the city,” Kopel said Friday.

The move came one day after Moorpark City Council members, frustrated that the project had not moved further in the nine months since they approved it, voted to cut the number of homes in the project. They approved an ordinance that would change the 655-acre property’s zoning, returning it to its original rural designation.

However, council members noted that the ordinance must be read a second time before it would take effect, giving Bollinger one last chance to line up financing for the project he has pursued since 1989. Kopel said that with the $68-million deal signed, he will ask council members at their next regularly scheduled meeting to change their minds about the rezoning effort.