Tougher Rules on Explosives Proposed

Ventura County builders using explosives to carve out new developments should do a better job notifying residents of impending blasts and pay for damage assessments at nearby homes and businesses, Supervisor Linda Parks said Friday.

Under county rules, builders are required to notify residents within a 1,000-foot radius of planned blasts.

Parks says the radius should be 2,000 feet and that builders also should meet with residents before any blasts to answer questions.

Parks plans to ask the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to adopt the more stringent requirements Tuesday.

The supervisor was jarred into action, she said, after Sherwood Development Co. detonated explosives June 24 near the Lake Sherwood neighborhood in eastern Ventura County.

All of the phone lines in her Thousand Oaks office immediately lighted up with calls from residents wondering what was going on, Parks said.

“It’s like a dull machine gun noise,” said the supervisor, who didn’t hear that blast but has witnessed subsequent explosions. “Residents described it as worse than a sonic boom and worse than an earthquake.”

Sherwood Development, owned by Thousand Oaks business magnate David Murdock, had received county permission to use the explosives.

The developer is blasting granite outcroppings to make way for luxury homes and a golf course.

In addition to concerns about noise and dust, residents of the Carlisle Canyon area worried that the explosions would foul their groundwater and damage wells.

Residents have repeatedly urged the developer to use large machinery to chip away the granite, a lengthy and more expensive process that company officials have said would have limited success.

Company officials could not be reached Friday for comment.

But a Sherwood spokesman has said that results from seismic monitors placed about 500 feet from the first blast indicated the amount of earth movement was about one-fourth of that expected to cause property damage.

Sherwood officials have already met with Carlisle Canyon residents, some of whose multimillion-dollar homes are 1,500 feet from the work site, to assure that they will be notified of future explosions.

But Parks wants to make sure that new blasting permits include the more stringent notification requirements.

She also wants builders to pay for county inspectors to examine nearby homes and businesses for blast damage.

Parks said the proposal she would take Tuesday to her fellow supervisors was similar to a measure enacted by Thousand Oaks at her request when she was on its City Council.

“We had a similar situation with the Dos Vientos development a few years ago,” Parks said.

“Residents were dropping dishes and diving under tables. Really, the point is to avoid situations where people are absolutely startled and frightened because they’re not aware of what’s happening.”