Local Officials to Join Study of Cal State Site

The city of Ventura today will name two representatives to a group being formed by California State University that will study the feasibility of building a four-year-campus on the outskirts of town.

Mayor Richard Francis, who supports the university’s choice of Taylor Ranch, a 450-acre parcel just north of the city border, has suggested that the City Council elect Councilman Todd Collart and Planning Director Everett Millais to the committee.

Delegates from citizens groups, state agencies and local cities will compose the advisory committee, which will be in charge of establishing the framework for the university’s environmental impact report on the site, CSU Vice Chancellor James Smart said.

Proponents and opponents of the Taylor Ranch site on the Ventura council welcomed the university’s initiative, but for different reasons.

Councilman Gary Tuttle, who opposes the site, said the university is forming the committee in response to pressure from the city.

“There’s no question we forced them into naming this committee, and I think that’s how it’s going to be all the way. We are going to have to watch them closely to make sure they don’t come in the city and take whatever they want,” Tuttle said.

On the other hand, Councilman Jim Monahan, who supports Taylor Ranch, said formation of the committee is an unnecessary gesture of good will from the university to appease critics of the site. Monahan said the university doesn’t need a committee to make sure the EIR is properly conducted and all parties involved are consulted. “I think the whole exercise is unnecessary,” he said.

Co-chairmen of the committee will be Smart and Ryan Boxer, project director of the Sacramento-based firm picked by CSU to conduct the environmental study. The committee will be composed of two delegates each from the cities of Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo; two from the Board of Supervisors; one from each of the remaining seven cities in the county and one each from the county’s two state senators and three state assemblymen.

Also, one committee member will represent each of the following state agencies: The Regional Transportation District, the Local Agency Formation Commission and the Coastal Commission.

Victory Alliance and ACTIVE, which support Taylor Ranch, and Environmental Coalition and Friends of the Ventura River, which oppose it, have been asked to choose one member per group to serve on the committee.

The League of Women Voters and Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, which have not taken positions on the issue, will also pick one representative each.

Smart said he is waiting for feedback from the groups and agencies. So far, Friends of the Ventura River has declined participation, he said.

However, he added, the university may allow Voters for Alternative Sites, which opposes Taylor Ranch, to select a representative.

Three Ventura council members--Tuttle, Monahan and John McWherter--said Friday that they support Francis’ nominations of Collart and Millais.

The university had requested that one of the two representatives be a city employee, and as head of the planning department, Millais is the natural choice, they said.

As for Collart, he is the most familiar of the five council members with EIR processes because he is also a full-time planner for the county. Moreover, he represents the swing vote on a council that is almost evenly divided in its support for Taylor Ranch.

But Collart is also one of the busiest council members and was not enthusiastic about being nominated.

“It’s going to be a lot of work, and if someone wants the nomination dearly I won’t stand in his way,” he said last week. “But Richard thought I was the middleman, the lesser of evils, and I understand that. I have to fill that role.”