Lynn Ranch Residents Defeat Proposal for Guards, Gates

Residents of Lynn Ranch in eastern Ventura County have soundly rejected a proposal to enclose their community behind guarded gates, according to voting results released Wednesday.

Of 393 property owners who voted between Dec. 7 and Dec. 24, 290 opposed gates and 103 favored them--a margin of nearly 3 to 1, said Susan Pavlik, a spokeswoman for the pro-gating committee that organized the election. The ballots cast represented almost 62% of the 640 households in the 538-acre development, which is a pocket of unincorporated Ventura County land within the city of Thousand Oaks.

The rejected proposal called for gates at the ranch’s three main entrances and a staff of private security guards. It would have meant assuming maintenance and legal responsibility from the county for nearly 10 miles of streets. Homeowners would have been assessed $600 a year to pay for the changes, and the fee could have increased yearly.

Voters also rejected a proposal to update and consolidate a dozen sets of rules that govern the 12 tracts within the ranch, and to make membership in a homeowners association compulsory instead of voluntary.

Pavlik said an analysis of the results shows that longtime residents, many of them retired and on fixed incomes, tended to reject the plan while newcomers seemed to favor it.

Opponents interviewed before the vote said they objected to the proposed maintenance fees, feared the liability that comes with making public streets private and disliked granting the homeowners association the power to levy emergency assessments.

Proponents said the gates would have deterred crime and enhanced property values.