Crash on Happy Camp Road

Residents have long claimed that increased truck traffic on Happy Camp Road is ruining their lives. Now a county assessment appeals board has agreed, granting whopping reductions in the values of two properties--with perhaps others to follow.

The rulings are bittersweet victories for property owners Frank Zamrock and Suzanne Thomas. The two are among 20 residents who have sued Ventura County over its approval of a mine expansion that allowed up to 1,180 truck trips a day on the road north of Moorpark.

In a year when most property values have been rising dramatically in the area, the county board earlier this month agreed to reduce the assessed value of Thomas’ 11-acre parcel on Happy Camp Road from $948,000 to $200,000--a 79% drop. The assessed value of Zamrock’s 10-acre parcel across the road dropped 82%, from $559,000 to $100,000.

Assessment reductions on that large a scale--which bring lower property taxes--are more commonly seen after catastrophes, such as the 1995 mudslide in La Conchita and the 1994 Northridge earthquake, said Jim Dodd, county deputy assessor. “That’s pretty atypical,” he said.

In an April 6 hearing before the appeals board, Zamrock reiterated views expressed by many on the road: that the value of their properties dropped drastically after a county decision in 1996 to grant an expansion permit to the nearby Transit Mixed Concrete sand and gravel mine. A lawsuit filed by the residents over the permit was rejected by a judge March 10, but they plan an appeal.

“Our county supervisors took my dreams for the future and just ripped them up,” Zamrock told the tax board at the hearing. The property he planned to leave to his children and grandchildren is now worthless because of the constant noise and fumes from passing trucks, he told the board.

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The truck traffic is loud enough to wake him in the morning and the exhaust is so thick that he cannot raise flowers for sale, he told the board. The pollution also aggravates his asthma, he said.

A third property owner, Pat Schleve, withdrew an assessment-reduction request after losing her property to foreclosure. In a letter to the board, Schleve said she tried unsuccessfully to sell for two years.

The board--a panel of three appointed residents who settle disagreements between owners and the assessor’s office over property values--agreed that the county’s decision harmed the two homeowners’ quality of life and their property values, said board member Jane Tolmach.

“It was very, very impressive,” Tolmach said of the testimony. “It really sort of shocked me. Everyone is concerned about being affected so dramatically by government action, and I think the government has to take the consequences of it. . . . The only thing we could do anything about was to lower their assessments.”

“I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to live up there,” said board member George Longo.

Deputy Assessor Dodd said he will recommend that county Assessor Glenn Gray allow him to review the handful of other properties along Happy Camp Road to determine whether those also should have assessments reduced as a result of the truck traffic.

“In light of the findings, we have to look at the other properties impacted,” Dodd said.

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County officials familiar with the dispute declined to comment on the appeals board action, citing the residents’ lawsuit.

But county planner Lou Merzario said some of the homeowners’ contentions were inaccurate.

For example, although the county permit allows up to 1,180 daily one-way truck trips Monday through Friday, the daily average cannot exceed 980 in any single month, he said. And the company has kept the average below 810--often considerably so--to avoid extra fees, he said.

“They heard only one side,” Merzario said.

County Supervisor Frank Schillo said the homeowners “would be entitled to some sort of consideration for the impact, but the depth of the reduction seems a little out of line.”