Mayor Says CYA Facility Not Welcome

Alarmed by the California Youth Authority’s possible interest in building a juvenile prison north of the city, Moorpark Mayor Pat Hunter said Wednesday he would ask the City Council to oppose the idea.

The Youth Authority’s director recently sent a letter to the city manager indicating his agency is interested in identifying sites for facilities and would like to examine a 90-acre parcel in the Hidden Creek Ranch area.

State officials who plan to visit the site in the coming weeks are not likely to get a warm reception.

“I believe it is in the best interest of the city, early on in the process, to express our dissatisfaction with their proposal,” Hunter said.

“I understand that they are almost in a perpetual evaluation process for expansion and new construction,” the mayor said, “but nonetheless, it is quite alarming when they are contemplating a site so close to your community.”

The 90-acre site being considered sits on the westernmost edge of the Hidden Creek Ranch project. It is owned by Messenger Investment Co. and was included in the Orange County developer’s proposal to build 3,221 homes on land the company owns north of Moorpark--a plan that would have boosted the city’s population by one-third during the next two decades.

CYA’s interest in the property comes six months after Moorpark residents approved two ballot initiatives, one to block the massive housing development, the other to prevent the city from growing beyond designated borders without voter approval.

Although Messenger is still fighting to build its project and has sued the city over the ballot measures, Hunter said voters have clearly stated they don’t want any development north of the city.

“If the public finds the kind of development proposed [by Messenger] for the site unacceptable, I don’t think they are going to find a prison an acceptable use of that land and I would tend to agree with that assessment,” said Hunter, who supported the growth-control measures approved by voters in January.

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Hunter said even though it’s early in the process, he wants city leaders to take a stand on the issue. He said he wants CYA officials to know exactly what they are getting into if they want to pursue development in Moorpark.

During its meeting Wednesday night, the council granted Hunter’s request and scheduled a meeting on the topic for Sept. 15.

During a break at the meeting, City Councilman Chris Evans sharply criticized the mere suggestion of a youth prison being built near his town.

“It represents the normal bureaucratic baloney at the state level,” he said. “They want to take a wonderful community like Moorpark, a pristine location like Hidden Creek, and make it into a prison. That’s the type of shallow thinking bureaucrats are capable of. It almost defies logic.”

Fourteen-year resident Dale Parvin said he is sure the community would rise up to fight any proposal to build a prison near the city. He said considering that Moorpark is the safest community in Ventura County, there is no reason to put a juvenile facility nearby.

“Why bring crime to a place that doesn’t have any?” asked Parvin, a real estate developer whose wife, Janice, is on the city’s Planning Commission. “I think we can get a few of our neighbors to agree on that one, like we did on Messenger.”

Parvin said he is sure a fight against a prison would be even more intense than the fight against the massive housing project.

“It would be an uphill battle for the state to put a prison that close to Moorpark; the residents of Moorpark would be prepared to stop that in a heartbeat,” he said. “Jails are necessary, but they need to be out of town somewhere--especially out of our town.”

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But CYA spokesman J.P. Tremblay stressed Wednesday that a formal proposal isn’t even on the radar screen.

So far, all CYA officials have done is send out an exploratory letter requesting additional information about the property, and indicating that they would like to see the site.

Tremblay said no plans are in the works at this time. He added that such letters are not uncommon and often are triggered by suggestions from state legislators or property owners.

The suggestion to look at Hidden Creek came from state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), Tremblay said. In a recent conversation with CYA Director Greg Zermeno, Polanco mentioned that the Ventura County grassland might make a good site for a future CYA facility.

“It was basically one of the regular meetings he has with legislators,” Tremblay said. “During the meeting, the senator said, ‘I heard about this piece of property, see if it might be worthwhile somewhere down the line.’

“We send those things out if someone calls,” he said. “It is like any government office or business. You always have to keep your eyes open if you want to expand.”

Messenger Vice President Gary Austin said Wednesday that the company’s attorney had received a similar letter from the CYA director. “We were taken by surprise.”

Austin confirmed that the 90 acres belong to Messenger and were included in the 4,300 acres it owns north of the city where the company proposed building homes.

The Hidden Creek property has been targeted for development for nearly a decade, but the plan has been sharply opposed by residents.

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Messenger tried to ease neighborhood concerns by promising to set aside 1,700 acres of its land as open space and hand the city and school district tens of millions of dollars in building fees, money that could be used for new schools and roads.

But voters shot down the plan at the polls, overwhelmingly embracing the provisions of the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative, or SOAR, and rejecting Messenger’s plan.

Longtime Moorpark resident Roseann Mikos was among those who fought to block Messenger’s development. On Wednesday, she said she was concerned that a Los Angeles-area legislator would suggest that Moorpark might be a potential site for a youth facility.

“I don’t get that, I don’t get that at all,” she said. “I am disappointed that someone from L.A. could arbitrarily suggest to put something like that in Moorpark.”

Mikos said she doesn’t know enough about the CYA’s plans to say much more, but is glad that members of the City Council want to study the issue as soon as possible.

“I’d certainly be concerned, but I don’t necessarily want to jump the gun,” she said. “I’d certainly want to hear a heck of a lot more about it.”

Times Community News reporter Eric Sanitate contributed to this story.

The California Youth Authority is exploring the possibililty of constructing a juvenile prison on a 90-acre site along the westernmost edge of the Hidden Creek Ranch property. Messenger Investment Co., which owns the land, wants to build 3,221 new homes and a golf course on a 4,300-acre parcel.

Source: Moorpark Planning Department