Residents Assail Ruling Clearing Ranch in Slide

Residents on Monday decried a Superior Court judge’s recent ruling that farming irrigation was not to blame for a March 1995 landslide that dumped a mountain of mud over their Ventura County seaside village.

“We’re not done,” said Mike Bell, one of 146 plaintiffs in the unsuccessful lawsuit against La Conchita Ranch Co. “The residents of La Conchita are not throwing up their hands and saying, ‘OK ranch, you won, we lost and we’ll just live in fear the rest of our lives.’ ”

Plaintiffs say that the farm, which grows avocado and citrus trees on 688 acres above their tranquil beach town, uses more water than its state Coastal Commission permits allow. They also say that it has failed to comply with the county’s 1981 erosion control plan.

David Orr, owner of La Conchita Ranch, said the residents are “misinformed. Our farm is in compliance with the coastal permits. And in reviewing the conditions of the erosion control plan, it looks like we’re also in compliance with that.”

The disaster struck March 4, 1995, after days of heavy rains. That day, the 600-foot-high bluff above the community broke free and tumbled onto homes on Vista del Rincon.

Nine houses were destroyed and dozens more were damaged. The residents who joined in the lawsuit had sought $24 million in damages.

But the judge agreed with the ranch’s lawyers and agricultural engineers, who maintained that the landslide was a natural disaster and not the result of improper farm operations.