Foe of Hidden Creek Seeks to Revive Suit

Intent on delivering a fatal blow to plans to build the largest housing project in city history, a slow-growth leader asked Thursday for a judge to reconsider dismissal of a lawsuit challenging an environmental study prepared for the development.

In the wake of a citywide vote last week overturning approval of the Hidden Creek Ranch project, Ventura attorney Richard Francis said he will request that Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Hutchins allow the lawsuit to move forward.

Hutchins dismissed the lawsuit after lawyers for the developer, Costa Mesa-based Messenger Investment Co., argued that Francis failed to file for a hearing on the case within 90 days, as required by state law, and that delays prompted by the legal action were costing the company $28,000 a day.

But Francis said Thursday that last week’s special election may have poked holes in that argument.

Residents in the farm town-turned-bedroom community overwhelmingly voted to reverse the City Council’s approval of the Hidden Creek project, proposed for north of town that would have added 3,221 houses and boosted the city’s population by one-third.

Now it is a vote of the people, not the lawsuit, that is blocking the project, Francis said. With the money losses no longer an issue for the court to consider, Francis said he will argue that the lawsuit should be allowed to continue.

“I don’t know on which grounds the judge made his ruling, but I can surmise that he was at least in part persuaded by claims that delays were costing Messenger $28,000 a day,” Francis said. “After the election last Tuesday, that is no longer the case.”

Representatives for Messenger said Francis’ motion was not unexpected. Nevertheless, company Vice President Gary Austin said he believes that the ruling was sound and that ultimately the lawsuit is without merit.

The suit, filed on behalf of the Environmental Coalition of Ventura County, contended that the environmental impact report prepared for the project, and the process used to put together that report, were flawed and that the document should be invalidated.

“I know for a fact that the city bent over backward to try to address issues as they were raised by members of the public and by their own Planning Commission and City Council,” Austin said. “We do believe that we have, and the city has, followed the procedures described by state law.”

In addition to last week’s vote overturning approval of Hidden Creek, Moorpark residents adopted strict land-use controls that will confine growth within the city’s boundaries for the next 20 years.

The so-called Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative is aimed at preventing the city from expanding beyond its borders without a vote of the people.

But even though the city now has those growth-control measures in place, Francis said it’s important to pursue the challenge to the environmental impact report to ensure that no future development can take place on the property where Messenger intended to build.

Francis said his request for reconsideration will likely be heard next month. If it is turned down, he said, he has not decided whether he will appeal to a higher court.

“We cross the bridges as we come to them,” he said. “I really want to give this judge a chance to look fairly at our papers without poisoning the well.”