Supervisors Expected to Reject Jail Challenge : Government: Appeal says the county hasn’t addressed environmental concerns in the plan to build on farmland. Suit also faults officials.

An eleventh-hour appeal of a plan to build a new Ventura County jail on farmland west of Santa Paula is expected to be rejected by county supervisors Tuesday, clearing the way for grading and construction to begin.

The appeal, filed May 18 and scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. public hearing Tuesday, alleges that the county has failed to provide adequate environmental studies on the project and has not assured proper protection for endangered birds believed to nest on the property.

A county report summarizing the appeal says it also contends that county planning commissioners “did not understand what they were doing” when they approved a permit for the jail on May 7.

In another challenge to the jail, the Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara filed suit last week to block the project on behalf of Citizens to Save the Greenbelt. The suit alleges that the environmental studies were not properly prepared and do not meet the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.

But the group has not yet sought a court order to stop initial grading of the jail site, which officials said could begin as early as this week.

“The lawsuit does not present any impediment to our moving forward,” said Arthur Goulet, director of public works for the county.

He said the appeal and the suit are attempts to delay the process, but they raise no issues that have not already been considered by the supervisors, who gave final approval to the project on April 23.

“I think the opponents are trying to obfuscate the issues,” Goulet said. “It’s just going to cost money, and I don’t think there is anything bona fide there.”

Opponents disagree and offer a list of alleged violations of the California Environmental Quality Act.

“The EIR did not address the cumulative biological impacts, the impacts on air quality and archeology, and it violates the county’s General Plan,” said Marc Chytilo, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Center.

The county plans to build a jail to alleviate crowding that plagues the jail at the County Government Center in Ventura. The existing jail, which will continue to operate, has a daily inmate population that is usually more than double its 440-inmate capacity.

In the first phase, the county plans to construct an administration complex and two housing units with 400 cells to house 752 inmates. Most inmates are housed two to a cell, but Goulet said some must be isolated.

The $53-million jail could be open by 1994 and is expected to cost $10 million to $12 million annually to operate.

Over the next 20 years or beyond, the jail would expand as needed to house up to 2,300 inmates, including 338 on work furlough programs. The cost of the complete project was estimated at $173 million in 1990.

If the appeal is rejected, supervisors on Tuesday are also expected to award a bid to prepare about 30 acres of the 157-acre property at Todd Road near the Santa Paula Freeway. The lowest bid, which has been recommended for approval, is $826,083.

Supervisor John Flynn, the only one on the five-member board who opposed the jail project, said last week that he intends to listen to the group’s appeal Tuesday. But he said the issue is “pretty much over.”

“The arguments have already been made, and to continue them now would not do any good,” Flynn said. Earlier, he proposed expanding the County Jail at the government center as a means to save money and space.

In their May 18 appeal, jail opponents Ken and Joy Chapman, Julie Tovias, Melinda Wiman and Richard Main allege that the Planning Commission did not fully understand its actions when it approved the jail’s operating permit.

Goulet said the appeal refers to confusion over whether the commission was required to certify the environmental report. But he said the commission fully understood its actions in approving the operating permit.

The appeal also alleges that the environmental report examined the consequences of building only the first phase, and not the entire 2,300-inmate jail. But Goulet said the county fully examined the impacts of the complete facility.

The appeal says a survey should have been done before the environmental report was approved to determine whether endangered least Bell’s vireos were nesting on the site.

Although the report has already been approved, Goulet said the county has hired an expert to survey the site before and during construction to ensure that none of the nesting birds are disturbed.

In addition, he said the county has hired an American Indian to oversee clearing and grading, as a precaution against disturbing any archeologically valuable remains.

“We’re not interested in destroying the environment in Ventura County,” Goulet said. “We all live here, and we don’t want to do anything to detract from it.”

Past objections to the jail have focused on the area’s propensity for flooding during heavy storms and its proximity to the Oak Ridge earthquake fault.

Goulet said some flooding is expected at the site during a 100-year storm, an event expected to occur once a century. He said the roads could flood and access could be temporarily cut off. But he said the land will be graded so that the buildings will remain “high and dry.”

He said two geologists consulted by the county believe the jail would be far enough from the fault to escape damage during an earthquake.

The Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara lawsuit, filed June 3, contends that the environmental studies are inadequate for many of the same reasons.

It also states that the studies do not properly consider increased air pollution from added traffic and that they do not adequately outline potential damage to the wetlands habitat along the Todd Barranca, which runs through the jail site.

“I believe they plan a (highway) interchange there, which would impact the barranca,” said Wiman, a member of Citizens to Save the Greenbelt. “And we think that at some point they expect to channelize the barranca, which is one of the last wildlife corridors in the area.”

County documents say the county does not plan to replace the natural ravine with a concrete channel. Goulet said that “exploratory” discussions of a settlement are under way with Wiman and attorneys.