Hearing Extended for 445-Acre Project

The Moorpark Planning Commission has extended the public hearing process on an environmental report for a 652-unit residential project.

The commission will hear more public testimony Dec. 14 before making recommendations on the Morrison-Fountainwood-Agoura proposal, planned for 445 acres north of Charles Street and east of Walnut Canyon Road.

While Planning Commissioner Gary Lowenberg said the developer has been receptive to residents’ concerns, “there were still some critical questions about the traffic circulation.”

Mike Greynald, a Morrison-Fountainwood-Agoura general partner, said the partnership wants to start building homes next year.

Lowenberg said residents near Charles Street have told him that a road built to serve the new subdivision--an extension of Spring Road--would bring truck traffic into their neighborhoods.

At the Dec. 14 meeting, Lowenberg said, the commission wants to look at other possibilities besides shifting the trucks from Walnut Canyon Road to Spring Road. One possibility would be to build another access road through the project.

In the Morrison-Fountainwood-Agoura plan, 175 acres--most on the southern end of the property--would be open space.

Of that, about half would be maintained by a homeowners association and kept private, and the rest would be dedicated as a conservation easement, with a portion of that reserved for a future California 118 bypass.

The proposed residential units, 532 single-family homes and 120 multifamily units, would be built in the northern and central portions of the property. Affordable housing is to be available in 65 of the multifamily units.

A middle school on 20 acres and an 11-acre park are also planned.