City Delays Vote on Zoning for Urgent-Care Center

Pressed by neighbors who are worried about traffic, the City Council Wednesday put on hold a proposed zone change that a local dentist needs to build an urgent-care center downtown.

Council members agreed to wait two weeks before deciding whether to rezone about four acres on the north side of Los Angeles Avenue near Liberty Bell Road, land on which dentist DeeWayne Jones wants to build an urgent-care center, offices and restaurants. The land is currently zoned for residential development.

Some area residents worried about the project’s impact on traffic in their neighborhood and on Los Angeles Avenue--Moorpark’s main commercial strip, which doubles as a major regional truck route. Jones’ plans for Westgate Plaza include one or two restaurants, possibly with drive-through windows, along the strip.

“It would be almost virtually impossible, with the traffic from this project, to even exit our driveways,” said resident Kathleen Lopez.

Council members also worried that the zoning change would allow Jones to include businesses that the city and residents might not want. For example, traffic-generating fast-food restaurants, council members said, could pose problems but would still be allowed under the proposed new zoning.

“The problem is this gives him anything and everything,” said Councilman John Wozniak.

Those questions were especially important, council members said, because Jones’ project is still taking shape. Although Jones said he would like to see a bookstore in the center, for example, he still has not determined whom the center’s tenants would be.

Jones told the council that the project needs to move forward soon. He said he had spent months negotiating with a health-care company to run the medical center and worried that a delay would harm those negotiations.

But council members said the delay was warranted. They directed city staff to work with Jones to find ways to let the urgent-care center move forward while blocking undesirable uses for the property.