Slow-Growth Tops Agenda at 1st Filing Deadline

As the first deadline for candidate filings passed Friday afternoon, City Council hopefuls in Simi Valley and Moorpark said that debate over efforts to clamp down on residential growth will dominate Nov. 4 elections in those Ventura County cities.

Voters there will not only choose council members, but they will also choose between rival growth measures, one pushed by a community group in each city and an alternative written by each City Council.

The races for council seats in two other Ventura County cities, Thousand Oaks and Camarillo, which also began to gel on Friday, were predicted to be less contentious.

But voters in Los Angeles County’s Santa Clarita Valley face two controversial choices: They will determine the fate of measures that would charge housing developers a fee to help the school system keep up with the hectic pace of development in that region. They will also elect four members to the area’s water agency, which is the focus of intense debate because of a proposed addition of non-elected members.

Regional Roundup Given

The following is a regional roundup of candidates and ballot initiatives in the affected communities. Not all candidate lists are final. For races in which an incumbent is not seeking reelection the deadline for candidate filings has been extended to Wednesday.

SIMI VALLEY--Voters will pass judgment on a City Council plan to restrict building permits to ensure that the population, now at 93,000, does not exceed 114,354 by 1996.

An alternative measure promoted by Citizens for Managed Growth and Hillside Protection would create extensive year-to-year controls on the rate, quality and type of housing for 25 years.

Another Simi Valley council initiative--a hillside protection plan--will compete with a more restrictive alternative measure advanced by the citizens group.

Incumbent council members Ann Rock and Vicky Howard, supporters of the council’s growth and hillside plans, filed for reelection on Friday.

Their challengers are Michael Stevens, a high school chemistry teacher and slow-growth advocate; Joseph E. Wierzbicki, a welder; William Jones, a salesman for a computer firm who said that the slow-growth initiative “smacks of a selfish attitude”; William M. White, a supervisor at an electronics laboratory, and David Penner, a corporate controller and spokesman for Citizens for Managed Growth.

Tells of Concerns

Penner said the groups’ initiatives were brought to the voters because of concerns that the council measures were too weak. For example, he said, the council’s hillside protection plan “has loopholes and variances which would allow continued development in the hills.”

The filing deadline for the mayor’s seat--which is voted on separately in Simi Valley--will be Wednesday because incumbent Elton Gallegly, as expected, did not file for reelection Friday.

Gallegly has won the Republican nomination for the 21st Congressional District and is favored to defeat Democrat Gilbert R. Saldana for that post.

Councilman Greg Stratton and Tom Ely, president of the governing board of the Ventura County Community College District, are expected to file papers for the mayoral seat.

Simi Valley voters will also consider two advisory measures designed to solicit public opinion on building a performing arts center and using property tax assessments to pay for it. In June, Thousand Oaks voters rejected a $22.3-million plan to build a regional cultural center.

Ballot Measures Listed

Ballot measures for Simi Valley are:

Measure A: Shall the City Council’s plan to control housing growth by regulating population growth be adopted?

Measure B: Shall the City Council’s plan to establish hillside performance standards be adopted?

Measure C-1: Do you want a performing arts center to be built in Simi Valley? (Advisory)

Measure C-2: If such a center is built on available public property, shall it be publicly financed through an assessment of approximately $60 a year for a period of 10 years on each legal lot in Simi Valley? Subject to a future vote. (Advisory)

Measure D: Shall an ordinance proposed by a residents group to control and limit residential building be adopted?

Measure E: Shall an ordinance proposed by a citizens group to preserve hillsides and semi-rural and suburban tranquility be adopted?

MOORPARK--Growth is also the key issue in Moorpark.

The local Committee for Managed Growth led a successful signature drive to put an initiative on the ballot that would limit new housing to 250 units a year, exempting projects for low-income residents and those of four units or less.

It will compete with a less-restrictive growth measure passed by the City Council. Although it would seek to limit Moorpark’s population to 33,878 at the turn of the century, an average of 411 building permits would be issued annually.

The slow-growth group also placed before voters a measure that asks whether a contract between the city and Urban West Communities, a developer building the 2,500-unit Mountain Meadows project, should take effect.

The council in April approved the contract, which requires Urban West to make $7 million in improvements to public roads, parks and school sites.

Incumbent council members Albert Prieto and Leta Yancy-Sutton, whose four-year terms are ending, have filed candidacy papers and will face a field of six challengers: Eloise Brown, a reporter for the weekly Moorpark Mirror; John P. Lane Jr., a law-enforcement supervisor; John Wozniak, a business administrator; Clint Harper; Michael Thomas, and Wayne Jones, a businessman.

Slow-Growth Opponents

Prieto and Yancy-Sutton oppose the slow-growth initiative.

A special race was called to complete the two years remaining of the term of former Councilman James D. Weak, who resigned in June because of illness. The filing deadline was extended until Wednesday because Jim Hartley, who was appointed to temporarily fill the seat, announced he will not run.

As of Friday, four candidates had filed for the seat: John Galloway; William LaPerch, a rancher, and current and former city planning commissioners, James Kennan and Tom Schleve, respectively.

The ballot measures for Moorpark are:

Measure F: Shall a controlled-growth initiative proposed by a residents group be adopted?

Measure G: Shall the city-approved development agreement for the Mountain Meadows housing project become effective?

Measure H: Shall the City Council’s measured growth plan be adopted?

THOUSAND OAKS--Two Thousand Oaks incumbents, Mayor Alex T. Fiore and Councilman Lawrence E. Horner, filed for reelection. Council hopefuls have been buoyed by the pending departure of Councilwoman Madge Schaefer, who is running for 2nd District Ventura County supervisor against incumbent Edwin A. Jones.

Because Schaefer is not running, the deadline for filing is Wednesday. Challengers who filed by Friday included Debra C. Cohen, a library employee; H. William Weiss, and Lynn Bickle, a community activist.

There are no ballot measures for Thousand Oaks.

CAMARILLO--In Camarillo, Mayor Sandi Bush and Councilman Thomas S. Martin have filed papers to seek reelection, while Francis (Tad) Bowen, a one-term council member, has announced that he will retire from the council, thus extending the filing deadline until Wednesday.

Challengers who had filed by Friday were Charlotte Craven, a community activist; Myrta Boyle, city planning commissioner; Christopher Hoops, a minister and teacher; Stanley Scesney, an engineer, and Arthur Lay.

There are no ballot measures for Camarillo.

SANTA CLARITA VALLEY--In the Santa Clarita Valley, voters will fill four vacant positions on the seven-member Castaic Lake Water Agency, which manages the water supply for the booming area. The vote is taking on added significance because four non-elected directors representing the area’s water suppliers may be added to the agency if a controversial bill passes the state Senate.

In addition, five area school districts have put forward ballot propositions that would impose fees on developers--averaging $6,000 on each new residential unit--to help pay for more schools that will be needed to keep up with the rapidly expanding population. Developers say the proposed fees are excessive.

The districts that will vote on such measures are the William S. Hart Union High School District and the Castaic, Newhall, Sulphur Springs and Saugus elementary school districts.

Candidates Listed

Candidates filing for the water agency slots were:

For director-at-large: Charles J. Brogan, incumbent; Bill J. Thompson, attorney; Alvin Aaron Seldner, certified financial planner, and Andrew Martin.

For Division 1, Canyon Country: Mary R. Spring, incumbent; William Broyles and Kenneth Dean.

For Division 2, Newhall: Ernest L. Spencer, incumbent; J. Michael McGrath, superintendent of Newhall schools, and Robert DiPrimio.

For Division 3, Saugus: H. Gil Callowhill, incumbent, and Jeffrey Burros, M. Down Carmody and John Charles Auguste Simas.