MURRIETA -- The developer behind a stalled townhome community that was being built on the city's east side is suing Murrieta for as much as $9.4 million in damages for what he says was a city plot to demolish his project.

The suit was filed July 9 in Riverside County Superior Court on behalf of Ron Bedell, the developer of the Warm Springs Townhomes project on Torrey Pines Road. Listed as dependents are the city, Planning Director Mary Lanier and City Manager Rick Dudley.

Attorney Stephen Miles, of Miles and Chen Law Group in Irvine, says in the lawsuit that the development company, Pacific Horizon Financial, incurred costs to make repairs on the structure for years while the city dragged its feet in granting permits for construction to continue. He also disputes a city determination that the building permit for the project had expired.

"The City's unsupported determinations concerning the (project) have run roughshod over (the developer's) Due Process rights and fundamental vested property interests," Miles states in the lawsuit. "The city's findings are largely unstated, grossly inadequate and not supported by evidence in record."

Miles could not be reached for comment this week.

Plans for the 1.4-acre site were approved in 2001. City records state that building permits were issued in 2003 for the construction of the 16-unit, two-story complex. Construction started sometime after September 2003, and by February 2004, work on the site had come to a halt, the records show.

Due to inactivity at the site, the building permits expired in August 2004, Senior Planner Dennis Watts wrote in a city report.

Lanier made a determination this May that the project had been abandoned and posed a public nuisance. At that point, the city began making plans to knock down the wooden frames of what would have become the townhomes.

The site has attracted squatters and vandals and city officials have said they believe it poses a fire hazard.

"What you'll see when you go out there is it was an abandoned property -- that's kind of what they allowed to happen," said Jeffrey Morris, who represents the city on behalf the law office of Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff and Holtz. "In this case it was an abandoned structure with exposed wood and without fire suppression services in the neighborhood."

Pacific Horizon Financial acquired the property in April 2006 and made attempts to retrieve the project's planning documents from the city.

According to the lawsuit, however, the city could only produce an incomplete file that lacked the permitted plans. During a third request of the documentation, a file one-third the size of what was originally presented was produced, the lawsuit states. Miles alleges that the city either "lost or knowingly destroyed" records related to the project.

Morris called the allegation of destroyed documents completely false.

"The exact details of the file I'm not entirely sure of at this point," Morris said. "But the allegation that items were intentionally destroyed is simply not true."

Attempting to move the project forward, the developer tried to submit new floor plans but was required to also submit new drawings because the city did not have them in place. That requirement, the lawsuit states, caused significant delays in construction and led to the developer incurring further expenses.

Watts, the city's planner, says that a visual inspection of the site conducted by an independent party in May 2006, determined that the property had been abandoned for roughly 12 months. After neighbors complained the following year that the project site was cluttered with crushed glass and vagabonds, the city began taking steps to tear down the structures, he added.

The neighboring residents, who had formed a community watch group to monitor the grounds of the construction site, supported the plan to demolish the partially built buildings.

But Miles alleges the city did not follow the proper procedure when it decided to tear down the buildings. According to the lawsuit, the developer never received a notice to cease construction and a public hearing on the city's plan to demolish the structures was never held.

The suit also states that while the developer was stalled by bureaucracy, he continued maintenance on his property by removing a bee hive on the property in 2006 and repairing a fence that surrounded the site in 2007.

"Meanwhile," the suit states, the developer "was not allowed to continue construction and the property was regularly vandalized."

Miles is seeking $9.4 million in damages, saying Bedell has "suffered substantial lost profits." He also is challenging the city's determination on the expired permits, and is requesting that the city be forced to rescind its decision to demolish the structures.

Contact staff writer Nelsy Rodriguez at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or nrodriguez@californian.com.