Developer Files Suit Over Road Project

The lead developer of a massive Newbury Park development has joined the brewing fight over a road plan there, blaming the city of Thousand Oaks for delays that he said could cost up to $50 million.

The developer, Arlen Miller of Calabasas-based Miller Brothers Investment LLC, filed a lawsuit in Ventura County Superior Court on Monday asking a judge to lift a city-imposed work ban on the planned extension of Borchard Road, one of two main roads into the 2,350-unit Dos Vientos Ranch project.

Under an agreement with the city, residents cannot occupy more than 600 of the development’s 2,350 units until the road is completed.

“The city is effectively holding us up,” Miller said. “They’re not letting us put the road in, and they’re not letting us occupy [the homes].”

Miller’s suit also seeks compensation for losses resulting from the construction delay, including “actual damages for the temporary taking” of his property rights.

The Operating Engineers Pension Trusts, another Dos Vientos developer and the primary builder of the road, filed its own suit Aug. 7 over the work ban.

Residents opposed to the project say the road project is unsafe, mainly because of its planned 12% grade. A city-ordered study found that the current road plan would result in far more traffic accidents than a road built at the city’s standard 5% grade.

Miller’s lawyer, Steven Weston, rejected those contentions at a news conference Tuesday, saying the city’s 1996 approval of the road plan included a safety analysis.

On another front, Superior Court Judge David W. Long allowed a homeowners association to join the city in defending against the Operating Engineers suit Tuesday, a day after high-profile attorney Edward L. Masry filed on the association’s behalf.

Project opponent Diane Adele Slate Smith said she was “elated” at the decision but unhappy that the plan has gotten this far.

“It should not have had to come down to this,” she said.