Council Will Reassess Housing Project

Revisiting what was supposed to be the last chapter in a decades-long saga, the City Council will reconsider a critical part of an embattled housing project Tuesday.

Acting on recommendations by city planners, the Planning Commission voted 3 to 2 on June 22 to approve the final pieces of Dos Vientos Ranch, a 2,350-unit project west of Newbury Park.

But the Planning Department appealed the decision July 1, citing concern over 16 homes that developer Arlen Miller intends to transfer from one parcel to several others. The City Council had opposed the transfer in the past.

Mayor Mike Markey said the Planning Commission should not have approved the units in the first place. “The council set a policy that they didn’t want those units in,” he said.

Markey and other council members point to a 1996 decision in which the council granted Miller waivers on various city standards, allowing him to make significant changes to part of Dos Vientos Ranch. In exchange, the council said the 16 homes could not be transferred.

But a county Superior Court judge later threw out the vote for technical reasons, and the council did not specify whether the 16 units could be transferred when it voted again.