Ridgeline Law Violated, Suit Alleges

Alleging that the City Council violated its own ridgeline protection laws and ignored the impact on schools, an environmental advocacy group sued the city Monday for its approval of the 252-home Woodridge development.

Save Open Space, a Conejo Valley residents organization with a long history of lawsuits against Thousand Oaks and Ventura County, is asking a judge to overturn approval of the hotly disputed project and order the council back to the dais.

It is also asking for a supplemental environmental impact report on Woodridge that takes into account more thoroughly the development’s impact on the 19,400-student Conejo Valley Unified School District.

The Woodridge project, which would fill vacant land between Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, drew sharp words from environmentalists when it came before the council in September.

In the past two weeks, it has once again sparked controversy after 420 homeowners who live near the future Lang Ranch Elementary School learned their children would not be allowed to attend the new school, but Woodridge children would.

School officials reversed their decision last week, opting to include all children from neighboring homes and turn Lang Ranch Elementary into a kindergarten to fifth-grade school.

Earlier this month, the environmental group won a similar development lawsuit against Thousand Oaks when a Superior Court judge threw out a council decision allowing “detached condominiums,” or small houses packed within 3 feet of each other, at Dos Vientos Ranch in Newbury Park.

The group has also waged a losing legal battle against the massive Ahmanson Ranch development east of Thousand Oaks.

Neither City Atty. Mark Sellers nor Woodridge Associates representative Michael Rosenfeld could be reached for comment Monday.

Mayor Mike Markey, who voted for the project along with Councilwoman Judy Lazar and Councilman Andy Fox, declined to discuss the lawsuit.

Councilwoman Linda Parks, a strong Woodridge opponent, also declined to comment on the suit, saying she needed to discuss it with city officials first.

Save Open Space attorney Rosemary Woodlock said Monday that Thousand Oaks planners failed to process the Woodridge development under the city’s ridgeline protection ordinance despite the presence of some sensitive ridgelines in the 743-acre site, just north of Avenida de Los Arboles and Westlake Boulevard.

So when the council approved the project, it broke the city’s own laws, Woodlock said--and as a result--Woodridge Associates was wrongly allowed to build an additional 90 houses too close to ridgelines.

“It seems there would be 90 fewer homes if the city has processed the development under the ridgeline ordinance,” Woodlock said. “The planners said they were not doing so because they were taking a practical approach. We at Save Open Space believe in applying the law at all times, not making judgment calls.”

The group also alleges that the City Council approved Woodridge using an environmental impact report that contained inadequate information on the development’s impacts on local schools. The suit asks the court to order Thousand Oaks to prepare a supplemental environmental impact report.

Thousand Oaks leaders conceded last week that they did not, in their opinion, have accurate information on the development’s implications for schools, judging from its effect on Lang Ranch Elementary.

School officials feel differently, however, saying they provided the council with more than enough information on the development’s consequences. They also point out that Conejo Valley Unified charged Woodridge Associates higher development impact fees--$2.31 per square foot instead of the district’s usual $1.56 rate--in its own agreement with the developer.

“We feel the impacts were adequately addressed in the mitigation agreement,” said Assistant Supt. Gary Mortimer. “We responded to the EIR.”

Councilwoman Elois Zeanah argued the need for a supplemental environmental report at last week’s council meeting, but Sellers, the city attorney, said it was too late to reopen the process.

Woodlock disputes Sellers’ contention, however, saying the council opened the door itself by once again discussing the project’s impact in public last week.