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College district will pay $370,000 in traffic fees to county
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The Ventura County Community College District will pay the County of Ventura nearly $370,000 in traffic fees in exchange for the county's settlement of a four-year-old lawsuit against the district.
The county sued in 2004, arguing that construction plans for Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark campuses did not include required measures to reduce traffic.
On Tuesday, during a closed hearing of its weekly meeting, the county Board of Supervisors approved the settlement, with a total payment from the district of $368,512, County Counsel Noel Klebaum announced shortly after the board voted.
College district officials discussed the possibility of a settlement months ago, but in March, the county asked a court to order all construction on the campuses to halt until the district paid the disputed traffic fees.
That request, along with the rest of the lawsuit, is now dropped, and work will continue at the colleges without objection from the county.
Community college officials argued that public colleges were exempt from state laws that require the traffic fees. However, a court case decided in 2006 ended with a decision against the California State University system, which was making a similar claim.
The college district's expansions are funded by Measure S, a $356 million bond measure approved by voters in 2002.
County officials argued as soon as the plans were released that they did not include proper mitigations for the traffic they would create. The worst traffic would come from the Oxnard campus construction, the county said, with more than $300,000 of the traffic fees related to that campus.
The college district's plans to expand and improve Moorpark College were held up in a similar but separate lawsuit from the city of Moorpark. That suit was dropped after the district altered its plans for Moorpark College expansion.
Posted by BigJake on July 15, 2008 at 3:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Is this money going to mitigate traffic issues or into the general fund? Star, why don't you find out about the rest of the story?
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