Development Seen as Threat to Lifestyle

Residents in the Gabbert Canyon area enjoy a quiet, semirural lifestyle.

But they fear that could change now that the City Council has approved plans to build an industrial park near their neighborhood.

Residents say that the project would increase traffic, expose them to hazardous wastes and block their views of the rolling hills.

“We wanted to have a home in the open space,” said Barbara Wilhelm, who lives in the area. “We sunk $750,000 into our property because that’s what we wanted.”

A-B Properties plans to build a complex for industrial businesses on 43 acres on Moorpark’s western border, north of New Los Angeles Avenue and east of Gabbert Road.

The development would be similar to the industrial center in the Moorpark Industrial Square complex, a representative for A-B Properties said.

While saying they had some reservations about the plan, City Council members last week voted to allow A-B Properties to move forward with the project.

A draft of the development agreement will be discussed at the Nov. 9 Planning Commission meeting and brought before the council again on Nov. 18.

When the City Council in December reviews the tract maps, which lay out the project in detail, the developer will discuss attempts to mitigate the impact of increased traffic, according to John Newton, a representative of A-B Properties.

Traffic circulation could be a problem because Gabbert Road off of New Los Angeles Avenue is the only street in or out of the residential neighborhood nearby.

“He has his work cut out for him,” Councilman John Wozniak said of Newton. “I tell you right now, to get me to approve the project, he has to come up with a good [traffic] circulation plan.”