Penalties Considered for Increased Traffic : Transportation: County supervisors may amend a plan so that cities must pay for congestion they create or face losing gas tax funds.

Cities that contribute to increased traffic congestion on Ventura County roadways should be required to help pay for road improvements or risk losing their share of state gas taxes, a county official said Tuesday.

Al Knuth, a county public works official, told the Board of Supervisors that the wording of a proposed regionwide traffic plan should be changed to ensure that cities pay for the congestion they create both inside and outside their boundaries.

The current wording of the plan only suggests that cities share in the cost of improvements on county roads.

“The more specific we can be in clearing up financial responsibility, the better off we’re going to be in the long run,” Knuth said. “If not, there’s going to be legal fights in the future.”

Board members agreed and voted to recommend the revision to the county Transportation Commission, which developed the state-mandated traffic plan.

The commission is required to adopt the plan before the county and its 10 cities can receive $7.5 million in gasoline tax revenue available under Proposition 111. The proposition raising the gasoline tax was approved by state voters in June, 1990. The commission will hold a hearing on the plan Friday.

Supervisor Vicky Howard, who is also a member of the commission, said she still has some concerns about the threat of funds being withheld from the county and cities if they do not comply with the traffic plan. Howard said state law is not clear about what would happen to those funds and suggested that some cleanup legislation may be necessary.

“That’s got to be ironed out,” she said, adding that Proposition 111 was intended to “solve transportation problems, not create more by withholding funds.”

Under the proposed traffic plan, if traffic is too heavy on a road in Thousand Oaks, for example, the city would have to come up with a way to reduce the number of vehicles on the road to an acceptable level. If the city fails to comply, it would risk losing its share of gas taxes.

Christopher Stephens, a county planner who works for the commission, said his staff will recommend that the commission ask the state Legislature to clarify what should be required by the traffic plan.

Clarification is needed, for example, to determine who is responsible for mitigating traffic on county freeways, he said.

Meanwhile, Moorpark officials have said the public should be allowed more time to comment on the plan before it is adopted. Mayor Paul W. Lawrason said Tuesday that a full environmental impact report should be done on the traffic plan.

Camarillo and Santa Paula officials said they have yet to be given a presentation on the plan. The Oxnard City Council will hear a presentation Thursday, Stephens said.