Builder Accepts Special Fees so Project Doesn’t Burden Moorpark

City negotiators have reached agreements with the developer of Hidden Creek Ranch intended to guarantee that the $1-billion project north of town will pay for itself and not become a financial burden to current residents.

Irvine-based Messenger Investment Co. has agreed to pay special fees totaling $16,000 per residence in the 3,221-home project if the City Council approves the subdivision--the largest in city history.

In all, those fees for road improvements, public building projects and to offset lost taxes would amount to about $51 million--and that does not include other fees that developers must pay for schools, firefighting, parks, libraries, public art, street lights, landscaping, and sewer and water hookups.

“All together, I’d say we’re in the neighborhood of at least $35,000 in fees per unit,” said Gary Austin, vice president of Messenger. “It’s very similar to fees paid in Orange County, which are probably the most expensive in Southern California.”

As the Moorpark City Council held its fourth hearing on the controversial Hidden Creek Ranch project this week, City Manager Steve Kueny notified council members in a memo that negotiators for the city and Messenger had agreed on several key points.

In exchange for the special fees and other concessions, the city--represented by Councilmen Bernardo Perez and John Wozniak--agreed to move the project quickly through the municipal bureaucracy if it is approved.

Under terms of a development agreement expected to go to the full council Dec. 17, officials said Messenger could begin grading the low hills north of Moorpark College as early as next summer, shaving more than six months off the waiting time.

The city also agreed to exempt the Messenger project from its hillside ordinance, which prohibits construction on hillsides with a grade steeper than 20%.

“These are major considerations,” said Nelson Miller, director of community development, speaking of the concessions by both sides. “Messenger has been very cooperative in the discussions.”

He said terms of the development agreement are intended to protect the city against funding shortfalls in the future.

“Our job is to make sure that we can provide the services that everybody expects when this community gets built out, if it is approved,” Miller said. “A project should generate sufficient revenues to pay for services on its own accord, without having an impact on existing residents.”

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Critics have made it clear, however, that their concerns go far beyond whether the project will pay for itself.

For example, at Wednesday’s fourth hearing on the project’s effects, environmentalists, students, and residents turned out to attack the new Messenger neighborhoods that would increase the population of this 28,000-resident city by about one-third.

More than 100 people packed the City Hall council chamber as the panel listened to speaker after angry speaker.

Student Carissa Dragan said she had collected signatures from 143 students and parents who want to kill the project.

“Most of us are rebels fighting for what we believe in, which is an environment that is pollutant-free and full wilderness,” said Carissa, who fears for Happy Camp Canyon Regional Park, a small part of which would be lost to the project.

The Moorpark Unified School District has not taken a stand on the new mini-city.

But Supt. Thomas Duffy told the council that Messenger had agreed to dedicate sites for two new elementary schools and a high school to accommodate increased enrollment.

After 18 months of negotiation, Duffy said, the district is also asking Messenger to pay half the cost of building the schools. The money would come from a $1.84-per-square-foot levy on each house and additional contributions, if necessary, to cover the developer’s half of the costs, he said.

Duffy said the district is considering establishing an academy for secondary education at Moorpark College, instead of erecting a second high school.

More than a dozen residents who live near the college showed up to protest the traffic increase that the Hidden Creek Ranch project would bring.

Resident David Crockett said the only way to handle all the traffic from the project would be to create an offramp from the Reagan Freeway, a plan the developers originally considered but dropped after saying the city should be able to take care of traffic with less-expensive solutions, such as improving existing traffic lights.

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Plans call for building a road across the southern portion of Happy Camp Canyon Regional Park that would connect with Collins Drive and Campus Canyon Road, which is often congested with cars going to the college or nearby homes.

“I do think the project has merit,” Crockett said. “Now is not the time for it. It needs to be when there’s access to the roads.”

Representatives from the Conejo Valley Audubon Society told the council that two species of birds--the golden eagle and white-tailed kite--could be endangered.

Both birds of prey, considered rare and threatened, have been spotted at the park and would likely disappear if their nesting areas are cut down for development, said Tom Halpin, the group’s chairman.

But most speakers blasted Hidden Creek Ranch.

Moorpark College President James Walker commended Austin for talking with the college about the project. And one Moorpark resident said she would welcome the project, especially because it could provide some affordable housing.

“This vision here is a vision of the true community that Moorpark stands for,” said Mary Roberts, a property manager in the San Fernando Valley.

Austin told the council that the project, which would have 365 homes that qualified as affordable housing, will include a five-mile trail for hiking and biking. And residents would also be able walk sections of the park that are now fenced off as private property, he said.

On Wednesday, the City Council agreed to hold another public hearing, this time to hear comments specifically about the project’s environmental impact report. That meeting is scheduled at 7 p.m. Dec. 3 at the council chambers, 799 Moorpark Ave.

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Kelley is a Times staff writer and Hong is a correspondent.