Soil Taken From Park Wasn’t Dirt Cheap, Suit Says

It was a dirty deal, city officials say, and now it’s ended up in court.

In a lawsuit filed this month, city officials have accused a housing developer of taking $214,500 worth of rich soil from a park site in the heart of the Oxnard Plain.

Described in a civil lawsuit filed this month as “prime, sandy loam topsoil,” the dirt is at the center of a dispute between the city and Patterson Road Oxnard Limited Partnership.

Under a development agreement for construction of a 200-home subdivision, the developer was to grade 26 nearby acres for a new park so that water would drain properly, the city alleges. According to the lawsuit, it was all right for workers to take some dirt from the park site, which is near Oxnard Airport and many vegetable farms.

The lawsuit does not specify how much dirt would have been acceptable, but states that builders were never authorized to take away 22,000 cubic yards.

The city was able to work around the problems caused by removal of so much dirt, but officials insist the city is entitled to compensation--not just for the extra effort, but for the market value of the mineral-rich soil itself.

“The soil is so good,” said City Councilman Tom Holden. “We know what we have.”

Alan Holmberg, the attorney representing Oxnard, said construction workers trucked the dirt over to the nearby housing development to construct building pads.

“They had just taken too much dirt, and we asked them to bring it back,” Holmberg said.

“I’m not a soils expert, but the soil in Oxnard Plain is good soil,” said Holmberg, who in the suit estimates the dirt’s value at $9.75 per cubic yard. “It’s not chunky old hard clay dirt you might find in some less desirable area.”

A representative of the builder, Bob Fowler of R.W. Hertel & Sons of Oxnard, declined to comment.

The housing development is nearly complete, filled with families who bought homes for $200,000 to $230,000. The first completed portion of the park is scheduled to open in September. To be called Southwest Community Park, the new recreation site is important both to the newcomers and families across Oxnard, city officials said.

“We’re in desperate need of more softball fields, and it gives us more soccer games,” said Michael Henderson, Oxnard’s parks and facilities superintendent. “We don’t have enough fields for our young people.”

The soil removal hasn’t slowed construction at the park, Henderson said. But according to the lawsuit, it did cause the city some engineering problems.

Grading at the subdivision began in 1994. Two years later, the city discovered too much earth had been taken away from the park site--a loss that could have impaired drainage and make the 26 acres swampy after storms, officials said.

Rather than wait for the dirt to be returned, officials redrew engineering plans to prevent flooding. That meant grades had to be redesigned and surveyors, landscapers, city staff and contractors had to work extra hours, the city alleges.

Aside from the value of the soil, city officials are seeking unspecified monetary damages for having to change drainage slopes.