Panel Told Sales Tax Could Speed Bypass

Construction of a proposed four-lane highway around Casitas Springs could begin in six years instead of 27 if county voters approve a half-cent sales tax increase in November, a county planner has told a panel of Ojai Valley residents.

Building the $30-million bypass could lift a ban on discretionary development in Ojai Valley, officials say. The County Board of Supervisors imposed the ban in 1988 on any development that would increase traffic on California 33 through Casitas Springs.

The bypass, endorsed by the slow-growth Ojai City Council, would run along the Ventura River from Casitas Pass Road about two miles north to San Antonio Creek in Oak View.

Daniel Kopulsky, a staff planner for the Ventura County Transportation Commission, reported on the bypass this week to the Highway 33 Improvement Committee, a citizens panel the supervisors appointed as an advisory group on highway issues.

Kopulsky said Measure A, proposing a half-cent sales tax increase, would pay for the bypass and other highway projects in the county. It would generate about $25 million a year, or $500 million over the next 20 years. The Transportation Commission has ranked the bypass as the last of 12 new highway projects targeted for priority in the county.

“We see the Casitas bypass as being controversial and that is maybe why it is not a higher priority,” Kopulsky said. “The major reason it’s on their list is because of the Highway 33 committee.”