Developer Sues City to Overturn Initiative

Declaring that the voter-approved growth-control measure known as SOAR is unconstitutional and discriminatory, the developer of the Hidden Creek Ranch project filed a lawsuit Friday against the city in a bid to overturn the initiative.

If not allowed to go forward with the 3,221-unit housing project, the developer will seek more than $150 million in compensation.

“We’re asking that the court prevent the city of Moorpark from enforcing Measure S and we’re asking that they declare that it is an invalid measure as it is applied to Hidden Creek,” said Gisele Goetz, an attorney for Ferguson, Case, Orr, Paterson & Cunningham, the Ventura law firm representing Hidden Creek Ranch. “We say it goes too far.”

City officials could not be reached for comment late Friday but Richard Francis, a coauthor of the initiative, called the developer’s claims silly.

“I understand their economic interest. Those are not so silly,” Francis said. “But their legal claims are bunk.”

In January, voters passed the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative, which prevents elected officials from rezoning farmland and open space for development without voters’ approval. A number of similar measures were passed in other cities in Ventura County.

The City Council had approved the 4,300-acre Hidden Creek Ranch project, but voters rejected the development deal by approving passage of Measure S and a separate referendum directly aimed at halting the largest housing project in the city’s history.

The Costa-Mesa based Messenger Investment Co., which proposed the project, says the city acted unconstitutionally. The lawsuit contends the city has taken the land for public use without offering just compensation, violating the 5th Amendment.

The lawsuit also charges discrimination in that Measure S unfairly singled out the Hidden Creek project. No other property within the city limits was targeted for deletion, the lawsuit contends.

Francis, who was one of the county’s SOAR initiative leaders, said while the land had been approved for inclusion within city boundaries, it had not yet been finalized before voters went to the polls in January.

The developers had a deal with the City Council, not the voters, he said.

“The citizens participated in that decision and said no, overriding the decision by the City Council,” Francis said. “They never had a deal with the city. They had a deal with three members of the City Council.”

The lawsuit arguing for the right to develop the land is the second filed by Messenger Investment. The first argued against the referendum. It lost and is being appealed.

The Hidden Creek project would have used a little more than half the land for housing and the rest for open space, Goetz said.

“It leaves a lot of open space for the public. And it’s usable open space,” she said. “The project actually provides a lot of benefits that I think the voters were not aware of.”

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Moorpark Expansion Project

Orange County-based Messenger Investment Co. wants to build 3,221 homes on a 4,300-acre parcel that would be annexed to Moorpark, increasing the city’s population by nearly 10,000 people.

Source: Moorpark Planning Department