The development team behind the proposed 18-story housing project on Carpinteria’s Ogan Road has sued property owner Frontier California Inc., alleging that the Frontier Communications subsidiary was “purposefully failing” to sell the property.

It’s the second lawsuit filed by the Fullerton-based developers, Carpinteria Group LLC, centered on the builder’s remedy project proposed for 5155 Ogan Road. (The group’s manager, Ben Eilenberg, is also linked to the proposed eight-story, 270-unit housing project near the Santa Barbara Mission.)

Representatives for Frontier Communications and Carpinteria Group LLC did not respond to Noozhawk requests for comment. 

The group sued Carpinteria in February, alleging that the city was blocking the 130-unit market-rate and affordable housing project. The city has denied those allegations, and that lawsuit is still making its way through the courts.

Carpinteria Group LLC is seeking a lot split for the project. The development team entered into a purchase and sale agreement for approximately 25,899 square feet of the parcel with Frontier on Aug. 9, 2024, for $550,000, with a $30,000 downpayment, per court documents for this second case.  

As part of the agreement, Frontier needed to get approval from the city for the split, which court documents allege Frontier delayed in doing and did not ultimately do.

Per court documents, Frontier moved to terminate the deal in April — after the development group issued subpoenas related to its first Ogan Road lawsuit — stating that the city would “never support a subdivision proposal that would satisfy” the purchase agreement.

Court documents further allege Frontier was “facing internal and external pressure to kill off the deal because of public relations on the sale of the property and the proposed use for low-income housing.”

The development team has spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars in design and entitlements” for the project, per court documents.

The City of Carpinteria is also named as a defendant in the latest lawsuit.

The developers allege that the city issued a “prejudgment” of the lot split application “before it was formally submitted,” and issued new requirements after the application was already submitted. 

City Manager Michael Ramirez told Noozhawk that the city believes the “claims alleged against it in this new lawsuit are wholly without merit.” 

“Many of the ‘facts’ alleged against the city are false, and the plaintiff’s claims are unsupported by law,” Ramirez said over text on Friday. “Yesterday, the city filed a demurrer asking the court to dismiss all claims against the city. The city believes it has complied with all applicable laws with regard to both Frontier’s lot split application and the plaintiff’s separate application for an 18-story housing development.”

The city has filed a demurrer with the court, which is set to be heard by Judge Thomas Anderle in Santa Barbara County Superior Court on Aug. 2.