Council Orders Stop to Work on Steep Road Into Dos Vientos Ranch

Residents who packed the City Council chambers to voice their opposition to the steepness of the planned extension of Borchard Road won a victory late Tuesday.

The 75 or so residents attending a public hearing on the matter said recommendations to make safer the Borchard Road extension--which would be as steep as 12% in some places--were insufficient. Once built, the road extension will lead into the massive Dos Vientos Ranch housing project in southwestern Newbury Park.

“The most important item for everybody, every time, every place, is safety first,” said resident Jim Nelson, urging the council to eschew the recommendations in favor of limiting the grade of the road extension to the city’s standard 5%.

Neighbors’ pleas were partially heeded, when council members proposed to have city staff, homeowners and an outside consultant reexamine the extension from scratch--looking at traffic issues, the grade, environmental effects and associated costs. The council issued a stop-work order to the developer, who is currently grading the road. Both decisions were made on unanimous votes.

The task of redesigning the road is expected to take six months.

Because of California Environmental Quality Act constraints, council members could not actually vote for a new grade Tuesday night, City Atty. Mark Sellers said.

Earlier in the evening, Councilwoman Linda Parks proposed that her colleagues vow now to stick with the city’s 5% grading standard. Her amendment failed on a 3-2 vote, with Mayor Mike Markey and council members Andy Fox and Judy Lazar voting no.

“If we’re going to fix the problem, if we’re going to acknowledge that mistakes were made two years ago, this [amendment to adopt a 5% grade] should be an easy 5-0 vote,” said Councilwoman Elois Zeanah. “Let’s don’t put this off until after the elections. That’s what six months means.”

However, her colleagues said making that decision Tuesday would be hasty.

“To say, flat out today that 5% is the maximum grade is foolish,” Lazar said. “I’m not ready to make that decision tonight. I’d rather wait and have all the information before me.”

The debate began on a conciliatory note, with Fox apologizing for the fact that the council majority had approved the 12% grade previously.

“Two years ago we made a bad decision,” he said. “Tonight we’re going to take a vote . . . to fix the road and make it right.”

Tuesday’s debate came on the heels of the release of two studies on the planned half-mile road extension.

A consultant for the city said accidents on the road could be halved by adding a handful of safety features, including: changing the road from two lanes in each direction to one lane in either direction, plus adding an uphill climbing lane; adding a raised median; prohibiting heavy trucks; and possibly adding protective traffic barriers to some parts of the road.

Unsatisfied with the city’s analysis, members of the Casas de la Senda homeowners association hired their own traffic consultant, who called the earlier analysis flawed and asked the city to redesign the road with the gentler slope.

Changing the road’s grade could represent a legal hazard for the city, because the 12% grade was authorized, on a 3-2 vote, by the City Council two years ago, Sellers has said. An executive with the road’s developer, the Operating Engineers, has said previously that the group might consider a lawsuit were the grade changed. No representative for the developer attended Tuesday’s meeting.

The original decision was made to lessen the amount of visual scarring and grading that would result from extending the road. But residents have long said they are more concerned about safety, fearing that drivers would barrel down the road to its end, at Los Vientos Drive, where children play and cross on their way to school.