Developer Sues to Lift Thousand Oaks’ Ban on Steep Road Extension

THOUSAND OAKS —  Foreshadowing a showdown that could cost Thousand Oaks millions, the developer of a major housing project has asked the Ventura County Superior Court to lift a city-imposed ban on roadwork.

If the court allows work to continue, Operating Engineers Pension Trust of Pasadena could complete an extension of Borchard Road that includes portions at a 12% grade.

That slope, steeper than the Ventura Freeway’s Conejo Grade at 7%, has triggered widespread community opposition, raising safety concerns.

A city-mandated study also questioned whether the road design was safe, prompting the City Council to halt grading July 16 so city staff could review the design.

The developer’s attorney said Monday that the city had no right to stop work on the road, one of two main arteries for the 2,350-unit Dos Vientos Ranch development. The company filed its legal action Friday.

“We’ve fulfilled every legal requirement,” said Mark C. Allen III, a Long Beach-based attorney who is representing the Operating Engineers. “They can’t just pull the rug out from under us after we built it the way we were supposed to build it.”

In correspondence with the city last week, Allen said the roadwork ban “is creating a severe impact on the development of Dos Vientos.”

“This is an immediate problem,” Allen wrote, noting that “potential builders are now balking at purchasing rights in Dos Vientos.”

The lawsuit also seeks to keep the city from interfering with any future road grading, and asks that Thousand Oaks renew a 1997 grading permit that city officials say has expired.

Councilman Andy Fox, who voted to approve the 12% grade two years ago but has recently called that approval a “mistake,” said the city should not be influenced by the possibility of litigation. “I think the city has a solid legal position,” he said.

Assistant City Atty. Jim Friedl declined to comment on the litigation Monday.

In an Aug. 5 letter to the developer, Friedl suggested the city might be open to amending restrictions it imposed that limit how many people can move into the housing development before the road is finished.

Allen said the city had two options if it wanted to change the road design.

“Either build it a different way themselves or pay us to build it a different way,” he said.

Although the suit does not mention a dollar figure, some analysts estimate that Operating Engineers saved between $1 million and $4 million when the City Council at a 1996 meeting gave it permission to build the road at 12%.

If the city now requires a 5% grade, which is the city’s standard, the road would require the removal of 3.5 million cubic yards of dirt and deep cuts into the hillsides.

Resident Jim Nelson, one of a core group of Borchard Road activists, said that if the city ends up paying for a safer road “that means the mistake the city made two years ago was a multimillion-dollar blunder.”

Diane Smith, another Borchard Road opponent, said she hopes the city will build a road at the city’s standard 5% grade, even if it costs millions of dollars to do so.

“It’s unconscionable to build a road that’s not safe,” she said. “If they recognize they made a mistake, then they have to fix it.”