CITY'S KIBOSH ON SOUND WALL IRKS RESIDENTS; MOORPARK COUNCIL DENIES REQUEST.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Daily News Staff Writer

With tales of screeching tires, drag races and emergency vehicle sirens going on throughout the night along Peach Hill Road, residents of the community asked the city for help in building a sound wall to cut out the noise.

``Sometimes it sounds like (cars are) going to land in our back yard,'' said Earl Stampley, president of the Peach Hill Homeowners Association. ``It's a constant thing. It's something that we've learned to live with, but at the same time if the city can do something about it, that would be welcomed.''

But the Moorpark City Council has agreed with the director of public works' decision to deny the request and asked him on Wednesday to draft a letter telling the homeowners that.

City officials said they receive requests from residents all the time asking for improvements of various kinds. But they don't want to set a precedent for requests like these, using public money to benefit private property.

Public Works director Ken Gilbert said that as taxes have gone down over the years, discretionary money once available to fulfill some of those requests has dried up.

``There's nothing there, but a lot of people don't realize that,'' he said. ``So people ask, and I don't mind that. It doesn't hurt to ask.''

But for residents along Peach Hill Road, it does hurt to be told no.

``I think that's a shame,'' Stampley said when told of the city's stance. ``I'm sorry they've made that decision. I would think that the city would want to beautify the area with a wall of that type.''

As envisioned by residents, the wall would have run along Peach Hill Road between Peach Hill Park and Rolling Knoll Road, sheltering homes behind.

City staff estimated that a 6-foot block wall would cost about $112,500, and an 8-foot wall would cost approximately $171,875.

Stampley said there is no money in the association's budget to build the wall, so board members will have to determine what the next step will be to get it done.

Stampley said that although the noise has been bad for the last three years, it has intensified with the city's closure of portions of Spring Road for street improvements.

Cars traveling between Tierra Rejada Road and New Los Angeles Avenue take a detour through the L-shaped Peach Hill road to the portion of Spring Road still open.

Gilbert said the city's duty is to maintain the infrastructure put in by developers once that developer walks away from the project.

The only time the city would build a wall after the fact is if it is negotiated as a condition of receiving a right of way to do a public works project.

An example of that is a wall built along New Los Angeles Avenue between Spring and Mallard as part of a project to widen the busy street. Gilbert said that was built using funds from the Los Angeles Avenue Area of Contribution Fund account into which developers pay for street improvements.