Proposed Road’s Steepness Doesn’t Make the Grade

Looking down from the scrub-covered hills into the neighborhood he calls home, Claude D’Souza describes an accident waiting to happen.

He points past the old eucalyptus trees, over the blooming wild mustard, and argues that the dramatic 12% slope of a planned extension of Borchard Road will put him, his family and his neighbors at risk.

In parts, the proposed extension--far steeper than the Conejo Grade--is well over twice as steep as city law usually allows for four-lane roads.

What worries D’Souza and others in the neighborhood is that the road would encourage speeders. Consequently, the road that crosses Borchard at the base of the proposed extension, Los Vientos Drive, would become a hot spot for traffic accidents, he says.

According to an environmental report, more than 12,000 cars would use the road each day on the way from the new Dos Vientos housing development to Thousand Oaks.

Opponents say they are opposed to the slope, not the road. “If they do a 5% grade,” D’Souza said, “man, would I be happy.”

D’Souza and others recently started a petition drive against the 12% grade, and the local homeowners association will meet Thursday to organize opposition to the plan.

City engineers have voiced similar reservations about safety, and they are scheduled at a July 7 public hearing to present the City Council with a study of roads similar to the proposed extension.

But the safety study may do more to cloud the issue than resolve it. The problem, according to both opponents and supporters of the road plan, is that the city already has approved the grading proposal.

In fact, two years ago, the City Council reversed a Planning Commission denial and approved the road and grading plan by a 3-2 vote. City planners later approved a preliminary design.

With those approvals under its belt, developer Operating Engineers Trust Funds graded the road site, with portions at 12%, late last year. The city needs to approve the street improvement plan before the developer, a union trust fund, can pave the graded road.

According to some estimates, the 12% grade saved Operating Engineers and another developer between $1 million and $4 million compared to an older plan that called for a 5% grade. The old plan would have required deep cuts into the hillside and the removal of about 3.5 million cubic yards of dirt.

Richard Hostin, project manager for Operating Engineers, declined to estimate how much it would cost to regrade the road. The 12% that has residents up in arms is no longer open to discussion, he said.

“As far as we’re concerned, we have a street that has been graded in accordance with the approved grading plan,” Hostin said. “They approved it.”

City engineers have a slightly different view.

City Engineer Beth Baden said the 1996 approval of the grading plan was “conceptual.” After residents voiced concerns about the grade, she said, city engineers decided to reexamine the safety issue.

“What we’re going back to the City Council on is specifically the gradient of the road,” Baden said. “We’re doing a study on whether or not the gradient will impact health or safety.”

Baden said the study will help the city choose possible safety features for the road. While she declined to say what the study’s recommendations might be, she said it would be up to the City Council to determine if the road as approved is too steep.

The city’s interpretation of the 1996 approval is mistaken, Hostin countered.

“There isn’t any such thing as a conceptual approval,” he said. “We have a vesting tentative map that was approved with portions at 12%.”

While the city has worked with Operating Engineers on increasing the visibility of cross traffic on the road, Hostin said the city has not broached the issue of reducing the grade.

If the city tries to force his company to reduce the grade, Hostin said Operating Engineers could sue the city. “There are a lot of options,” he said, “and that’s one of them.”

But the city could also face litigation if it allows the steep project to move forward, opponents say.

“When the council deviates from standards, it increases its liability,” said Milan Svitek, a Los Angeles County planning engineer who lives near the proposed road. If there is an accident, he said, “there will be a thousand lawyers who will be happy to sue the city.”

“The city eventually will lose,” Svitek said.