City refiles suit against Moorpark College
Traffic, road improvements a concern

By Sylvie Belmond belmond@theacorn.com

At a recent media day event, Moorpark College officials unveiled plans for three new buildings on the campus northeast of town, but city officials still have concerns about the impacts of increased traffic that will be generated.

The city wants the college to contribute funds for local road improvements, but college officials say there is no money available for offsite upgrades. The city's concerns are not justified, said Pam Eddinger, vice president of student learning at Moorpark College.

Moorpark filed suit against the college district over the issue almost two years ago. The suit, withdrawn when the college completed an environmental impact report, was refiled last month because the EIR was not acceptable to the city.

Projects have been scaled back because construction and raw material costs have tripled since bond Measure S passed in 2002. The facilities slated for construction next year won't significantly increase enrollment but will improve the learning environment for the existing student population, college representatives said.

The proposed twostory academic center will house 33 classrooms and about 30 offices for faculty members. It will replace older classrooms that are no longer adequate, said Ray Di Guilio, vice president of business services at Moorpark College.

Construction, scheduled to begin in January, will take about two years to complete. A new health and science building and a smaller complex for students in the exotic zoo program, now housed in mobile classrooms, are also slated for construction next year. The buildings are designed to blend in with existing architecture, said Di Guilio.

While the college district is finalizing its construction plans, differences with the city over traffic and road impacts remain unresolved.

The college district and Ventura County also disagree about traffic. Both the city and the county want financial assistance in order to mitigate the effects of growing traffic generated by students.

"We are severely impacted by the student population, which continues to grow, but the college is not helping financially to mitigate the increased traffic," said Moorpark City Council member Janice Parvin.

Specific areas of concern include the 118 Freeway offramps at Collins Drive and an intersection at University and Collins drives.

The city and a local developer have already made some improvements to surface streets at the intersection of Collins and Campus Park drives, but Parvin said the college should pay a fair share to install traffic lights where they are needed at the eastbound offramp north of the freeway and at University Drive.

The college should not rely on local taxpayers to alleviate problems caused by student population growth, she said.

"The problem is they (college district officials) think they're not responsible for mitigating the impact of their projects and they say they don't have the money to pay for road improvements," said Councilmember Roseann Mikos.

College officials have started construction on previous projects before completing environmental impact reports and had counted on funds from the developers of North Park to alleviate congestion in the area. Since the North Park project was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls almost two years ago, college leaders made the wrong assumptions, said Mikos.

All the issues of contention center on the college's master plan for new buildings. Concerns about drainage also exist, said Hugh Riley, Moorpark's assistant city manager.

"Bigger parking lots create more runoff, but the college hasn't shared grading plans with the city ahead of time, before starting construction, so impacts can be evaluated," he said.

According to Handel Evans, a consultant for the Ventura County Community College District in charge of Measure S bond projects, the city's requests for the college to fund off-site road improvements in anticipation of future growth are unwarranted. The buildings that are planned will not affect enrollment, he said.

Furthermore, colleges and schools don't create population growth, said Evans, but are service industries that respond to growth generated by new developments in the region.

The college should only be financially responsible for projects immediately adjacent to the campus, said Evans.

Collins offramp redesign costs, totaling millions of dollars, should not be shouldered by an educational institution, he said. Caltrans is responsible for expenses associated with state freeways.

Community colleges already receive less funding than other public institutions in the state, according to Evans. Local school districts receive developer fees when new projects are built in their service area, and universities draw students from anywhere in the state and beyond, but only local students attend community colleges, said Evans.

Ventura County is also seeking funds from the college district because students use county roads but mitigation fees have not been paid to alleviate the impact of such traffic. However, no litigation is pending between the county and the college district. "None of us want to get in any sort of legal tangle and spend tax money on lawsuits. Hopefully, we'll be able to resolve these issues," Evans said.

"Litigations don't resolve problems. People with good intentions solve these problems," he said. College representatives have been meeting with Moorpark staff members to try to resolve the issue of the University Drive traffic signal because the site is adjacent to the campus.

Although Evans said he does not anticipate that the lawsuit refiled by the city will hold up college projects scheduled to begin early next year, "unanticipated delays can always occur," he said