Moorpark Hopes Plan Brings Back Boom Days

MOORPARK —  In the 20 years that Sandy Taylor has worked at the Cactus Patch Restaurant, she says she has witnessed the city’s downtown go from boom to bust.

The changes are most evident on High Street, a once-thriving agricultural hub and commercial strip. Gone is the bank. Gone is the post office. Gone is the hustle and bustle that once made High Street a vital part of Moorpark’s economy.

“I love this town and I love High Street,” Taylor said. “But now I just stand here and wonder what happened.”

What happened to downtown Moorpark is similar to what has happened to downtown America--small communities eventually grew too big for the merchants on Main Street to satisfy all the new customers. As grocery stores became an integral part of planned developments, and multiscreen movie theaters popped up along major thoroughfares, downtown merchants suffered--unless local governments intervened.

Last week, Moorpark officials held the first in a series of public hearings regarding a $1.6-million revitalization plan that backers say could help downtown Moorpark rise again.

The proposal, formally known as the Moorpark Downtown Specific Plan, was prepared by RRM Design Group of San Luis Obispo and encompasses a nine-block area, including High Street between Spring Road and Moorpark Avenue, as well as portions of Walnut and Charles streets, and Moorpark Avenue north of Los Angeles Avenue.

A second hearing will be held Aug. 25, and once the Planning Commission has finished receiving public comments, a revised version of the proposal will be sent to the City Council for a vote in late September or early October.

This is the third time in the past two decades the city has considered such a proposal. But, as City Councilman Bernardo Perez points out, the current plan is the first to include an estimate of how much public money would be necessary to make downtown the so-called “Star of the Conejo Valley.”

“From here on, the actual implementation steps will occur,” Perez said.

According to the Specific Plan, downtown’s proximity to schools, parks and civic buildings and its well-known landmark buildings make the area suited for the revitalization proposal, which could attract more visitors looking for shopping and entertainment opportunities.

“You have a community that wants a place to go stroll and patronize their merchants,” said LeeAnne Hagmaier, senior vice president of RRM Design Group and the lead consultant on the project.

Under the proposed plan, revitalization will be successful if the mix of residential and commercial users takes advantage of the unusual combination of large and small lots.

The city of 28,000 was incorporated in 1983, and most of its downtown lots were devised long before--when such things as zoning laws and development permits were not mandated.

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The new plan also lays out design standards for residential and commercial development and expansion emphasizing bungalows of the early 1900s and Spanish mission-style buildings.

To make the area more pedestrian-friendly, RRM staff members recommend that parking lots be hidden from view by placing them behind buildings, and adding sidewalks, benches and shade trees.

Public spaces play an important role in RRM’s vision for downtown Moorpark, such as closing off Magnolia Street north of High Street, and turning it into an open-air courtyard with kiosk vendors.

No matter what the plan ultimately includes, “The goal is to revitalize the historic downtown,” said John Newton, a Moorpark land-use consultant and chairman of a citizens’ committee appointed by the City Council to provide comments on the project.

A number of things have led to the decline of downtown, Newton said, chief among them the realignment and widening of rural Los Angeles Avenue (California 118) away from downtown and straight through to California 23.

“It happens every time a community grows. The loss of traffic means loss of visibility,” he said.

The change eventually made Los Angeles Avenue a cash cow for the city. Not only have manufacturing plants set up shop along the thoroughfare, but merchants offer just about anything shoppers could want, complete with plenty of parking.

Newton said a project that heralded downtown’s decline was the opening of the Hughes Center on Los Angeles Avenue at Moorpark Avenue in 1984.

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Since then, Los Angeles Avenue has attracted a multiplex movie theater, numerous fast-food restaurants, a second big-name grocery store--Albertsons--and a Kmart.

Three citizens’ groups have been convened since 1979 to study downtown’s problems and come up with bailout plans.

“Unlike the previous two, this one has some implementation prospects built in,” Newton said.

Some proposed revenue sources include a new gasoline tax, surcharges on vehicle registration and fees applied to developers based on how their projects affect, among other things, city streets.

Also, there is about $1 million remaining from a Redevelopment Agency bond that must be spent on public improvements. It will be up to city leaders to decide whether to use that money for sprucing up downtown, or for projects elsewhere in the city.

For the latest plan to work, Newton said, the city must create incentives for private investment, such as streamlining the permit process and relaxing setbacks on downtown lots.

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The citizens’ group also recommends reducing by up to 50% development and permit fees, which are based on the type of building, the materials used in construction and how customers and employees use the building.

“Half the fees is better than no fees if no development occurs,” Newton said.

None of these incentives will work in the long term, Newton said, unless people feel safe downtown. Among the proposals to increase the perception of public safety is relocating the police resources center from Moorpark Avenue to High Street.

The citizens’ group also recommends aggressive steps to clean up the area’s eastern gateway, which is the intersection of High Street and Spring Road where day laborers gather at the Tipsy Fox liquor store seeking temporary employment.

In addition to assigning a police resources officer to the area full time, the group recommends moving the day-laborer area, perhaps to a city-owned site.

But some in the community say the city’s goal should be to get people of all economic classes to accept one another, rather than shuffling day laborers from site to site.

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“The problem that these chaps are having is the same problem others in the community are having--a lack of work,” said Ruben Castro, senior case worker for Catholic Charities.

“These chaps are jacks-of-all-trades,” Castro said. “Some work in construction, some in the fields and some in factories. About half of them are bachelors and about half are family persons.”

Those most concerned about the laborers and the image they project about downtown Moorpark are the people who have recently moved here, said Castro, 67, who has been a Moorpark resident since he was only a few days old.

“When these people see a group of men in work clothes standing on a street corner, they become fearful of them because they don’t know them,” Castro said.

Joy Cummings, a downtown resident since 1973, said she is opposed to RRM’s plan because it calls for more apartments near her home on Bard Street.

“I do not think people were meant to live in crowded conditions,” Cummings said. “In the downtown, you are creating crowded conditions.”

To some, the downtown Specific Plan could become little more than another set of dreams unfulfilled.

“If there is something new there, show me,” said Luis Martinez, who has owned the Cactus Patch Restaurant since 1979.

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“The government focuses on the new development,” Martinez said. “They forget about us.”

The way Martinez sees it, city leaders have turned their backs on downtown for too long, and the proposed revitalization plan does not go far enough to solve any of the problems.

Taylor, the waitress and a longtime resident of Moorpark, said the town needs a hook similar to that of Solvang--the popular Danish-themed village in Santa Barbara County.

“I have even thought about a bed and breakfast. That would be perfect for downtown,” Taylor said.

But the biggest hurdle for the city and private business, Taylor said, is convincing merchants and customers that downtown Moorpark is a nice place to do business.

“We need to let people know there’s nothing wrong down here,” she said.

Debbie Rodgers Teasley, who was elected to the Moorpark City Council in November, said she moved from Thousand Oaks in 1983 to take advantage of lower housing costs.

“At that time, there were only 8,000 people here. There was no hustling and bustling,” she said. “It was always very nice. And on High Street there was just quaint shops.”

While it is useful to visualize the future, the city should devise a solid plan before committing public funds, Teasley said. “The city can only plan for so much. Private enterprise has to come in and say, ‘Hey, I think it’s a great place to put a coffee shop, or a candy store.’ ”

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One of the best ways to lure investors downtown, according to former Councilwoman Eloise Brown, is to offer them freedom to build as they see fit.

“I believe anyone putting in that amount of money is not going to give you something ugly,” she said. “It might not appeal to your tastes. But that doesn’t mean it’s ugly.”

No matter what, she said, don’t force a theme down developers’ throats.

“Moorpark grew because of rugged individualists building a building--with their own money. And they did it the way they wanted to do it,” Brown said.

Colin Velasquez, who owns a business on Los Angeles Avenue and a piece of commercial property on High Street, told the Planning Commission last week that the marketplace should drive the look of downtown.

“All you’re doing with themes is creating an encumbrance,” Velasquez said.

“There have been no controls for 30 years, and nothing has happened. You think controls are going to make something happen?”

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About This Series

“Heart of the City: The Rebirth of Downtown” is an occasional series describing the efforts to revitalize the downtown shopping districts in Ventura County’s 10 cities. Today’s installment focuses on Moorpark. Future stories will examine renovation plans in other communities.