MOORPARK : Planning Director Submits Resignation

Moorpark’s planning director announced his resignation Monday, at a time when city officials are grappling with the most important planning decisions in the city’s nine-year history, City Council members said.

Director of Community Development Patrick J. Richards submitted his letter of resignation, saying he will end his more than five years with the city on May 8, Councilman Scott Montgomery said.

Richards and other staff members have been working for more than two years on the city’s General Plan update and a proposed expansion of the city’s boundaries. The council is expected to begin making decisions this week on the proposals, which could add more than 10,000 new homes to Moorpark over the next 20 years.

“It certainly was not something the city requested,” Montgomery said of the resignation. The council will consider Wednesday how to fill Richards’ position, he said.

Richards could not be reached for comment.

Richards’ resignation came five days after he and other city staff members were publicly castigated by the council over delays in processing the General Plan update and proposed expansion.

In a report signed by Richards, staff members recommended that the council not begin making decisions on the planning proposals until June because city planners needed several weeks to complete certain preliminary tasks.

But council members, led by Montgomery, criticized staff members for not completing the tasks sooner. The council rejected the proposed timetable and instead gave the staff one week to finish projects that the report estimated would take up to 70 hours.

Montgomery said he did not regret the council’s strong reaction to the report, adding that the criticism had not been directed solely at Richards.

Although Richards’ name was on it, Montgomery said, “he was not unilaterally responsible for the report.”

Before taking the position as community development director in Moorpark in 1986, Richards was a city planner for Simi Valley.