SOAR Turns In 2,441 Signatures to Fight Hidden Creek Project

MOORPARK — A day after SOAR activists turned in signatures to overturn the project, a key state agency will consider allowing Moorpark to expand its borders to accommodate the largest housing development in recent county history.

Hidden Creek Ranch, a 3,221-house development that would increase Moorpark’s population by one-third is at the center of this election season’s Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative campaign.

A referendum committee--whose members are backers of the SOAR growth-control initiative--filed 2,441 signatures with the city clerk Tuesday to put the already-approved Hidden Creek Ranch project to a public vote.

The signatures must now be validated.

To qualify a referendum for the ballot, petitioners need 10%--or about 1,500 signatures--of the city’s registered voters.

“What I hope the referendum will achieve is it will allow the citizens of Moorpark to make one of the most important decisions their city will ever make,” said Steve Bennett, a SOAR organizer. “It’s inappropriate to make a decision like that and not give voters a chance to voice their opinion.”

But Councilman Bernardo Perez defended the council’s approval of the project in part because it would bring many benefits to the city, including money for road improvements. Some money would be used to develop a California 118 bypass road that would alleviate city truck traffic.

He said opponents of the project are disregarding the eight years of study and public meetings that took place between the city and Orange County-based Messenger Investment Co., the project’s developer.

“The City Council didn’t make the decision in a vacuum,” Perez said. “What it gets down to is some people want to control private property that they do not own and at no cost to them, and that is unfair.”

Moorpark is moving ahead with the next step by requesting permission from the Local Agency Formation Commission--the state agency that approves annexations--to extend the city’s boundaries.

If the seven-member commission agrees to the change as recommended by its staff, the agency could decide as early as next month whether to allow the city to annex Hidden Creek Ranch, said Arnold Dowdy, the commission’s executive director.

Keith Jajko, an aide to formation commissioner and county Supervisor Judy Mikels, said he expects the panel to approve annexation of the Hidden Creek Ranch site.

“It’s pretty much a formality,” Jajko said. “The city has said we want it to be part of the city. That would be a pretty compelling argument to LAFCO.”

SOAR backers are hoping to pass seven growth-control initiatives later this year aimed at stopping projects like Hidden Creek Ranch.

A countywide SOAR measure would prevent development on unincorporated farmland and open space without voters’ approval, while city measures in Moorpark, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Oxnard and Santa Paula would prevent development beyond designated boundaries unless voters signed off on it first.

The Moorpark measure seeks to stop any development that failed to obtain final approval before the beginning of the year.

Hidden Creek opponents had to resort to a referendum to block the project because the development was approved before voters had a chance to consider the local SOAR initiative. The measure qualified last month for a special election that could possibly be held in January.

In other issues, commissioners will decide today whether to allow Camarillo to annex the Ponderosa Corridor that runs along the north side of the Ventura Freeway.

The city wants to add the 270 acres of agricultural land to its borders to build a highway interchange providing access to Camarillo Airport and nearby businesses.

Originally, the city intended to use the land to build housing for the a new Cal State University campus planned near the city. But environmentalists objected, urging City Council members to preserve the farmland there. In June 1997, the council voted to place a moratorium on development in that area for the next five years.

It is that decision that led commission officials to deny recommendation of the proposed annexation. Under current rules, the purpose of annexation is for development.

“Otherwise, I guess you could annex to the ocean and just hold it,” Dowdy said.

Dowdy, who reviewed the application, said there is no need to annex such large a plot of land for the construction of an interchange.

Officials from the city’s planning department will go before the regional board today to present their case. If the board does not approve their request, the city must amend its plan and resubmit it within a one-year period.

Times Community News reporters Jennifer Knight and Andy Samuelson contributed to this story.

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Moorpark Expansion Project

Orange County-based Messenger Investment Co. plans 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. Opponents are seeking a referendum drive to overturn the City Council’s approval of the project.