MOORPARK : Leaders Search for Measures to Control Growth

Told that they cannot use numerical limits to control growth, city leaders in Moorpark are looking for other means to make sure the town does not burst at its seams.

Over the next 20 years, planners expect Moorpark to be the fastest-growing city in Ventura County. But officials say a nearly two-year effort to control that growth seems hamstrung by the possibility of future lawsuits.

The City Council approved a plan Wednesday to look at how other cities in Southern California are controlling growth.

Moorpark’s existing growth-control ordinance, called Measure F, expires atthe end of the year. An effort to pass a new ordinance using strict limits on the number of homes built each year has been stalled because of a precedent-setting case that struck down a similar ordinance in Oceanside.

Oceanside lost a six-year legal battle over its slow-growth law to the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California. Defending that case cost Oceanside more than $2 million, and city leaders in Moorpark want to avoid that kind of fight.

In April of this year, the state Supreme Court declined to hear the Oceanside case. Attorneys for Oceanside have balked at taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, letting it stand.

That left cities like Moorpark--which had wanted to control growth by setting numerical limits--in the lurch as they struggled to come up with alternatives.

This week, the council looked over an ordinance used in the city of Chula Vista, which uses quality of life standards to control growth. That city’s ordinance identifies 11 standards, tying development to meeting the community needs for air quality, police services, fire service, emergency medical service, schools, libraries, parks, recreation opportunities, water supplies, the capacities of sewer systems, drainage and traffic.

Moorpark leaders want to adopt an ordinance for similar standards, but that process could take several months, said Mayor Paul Lawrason. If the council cannot come up with new rules by the end of the year, Lawrason said, they may have to extend the existing ordinance.