MEINERS OAKS : Residents Criticize Subdivision Plan Over Traffic, Noise

A group of Ojai Valley residents descended on the County Government Center Wednesday to continue their battle against a 50-home subdivision planned for a Meiners Oaks meadow.

Members of the Besant Meadow Preservation Group told a county panel that the development would increase traffic congestion, smog, noise, light glare, flooding and the water shortage in the area. The effects on wetlands and overcrowding of Meiners Oaks Elementary School also were raised.

Speakers argued for further study of the subdivision’s environmental impacts.

The county Environmental Report Review Committee will decide Sept. 5 whether to approve the twice-revised study or send it back for more work. Committee members, who represent seven county agencies, said they needed more time to review public comment.

“The general character of Besant Meadow is of a small oasis,” said Elaine Needham, a nearby resident. “It represents an open space in the minds and hearts of the people of Ojai of what we would like to keep as Ojai.”

Ojai Planning Director William Prince was among those who argued for revisions of the environmental study that has been under review since 1988.

Frank Noyes, 94, a retired citrus grower who in the 1940s planted 200 eucalyptus trees that fringe the meadow, said he fears their removal.

“There isn’t another grove like it in all of California as far as I know,” Noyes said, asking the committee to consider how much water it would take to nurture younger trees to replace mature trees.

Developer John Schuck, president of Franciscan West Developments in Santa Barbara, has promised to keep 67 of the 125 largest trees in the grove and do extensive planting around the proposed homes.

Schuck submitted a two-page list of his attorneys’ concerns about the study, saying they want it to be “bulletproof” against litigation. Schuck’s five-year attempt to build on the parcel has repeatedly been stalled by community opposition and a court battle with Ventura County. After supervisors adopted a new General Plan in 1988 that banned subdivisions in Ojai Valley, which would add more cars through Casitas Springs, Schuck sued the county.

He won the suit last year on the basis that his application fell under the old General Plan.

A state Court of Appeal overturned the ruling two weeks ago.

Schuck said Wednesday that his attorneys will file a request the appellate court to reconsider its decision.