Effort to Halt Work on New Jail Rejected : Supervisors: The action clears the way for construction to begin on the facility near Santa Paula. Foes opposed the greenbelt site.

Ignoring pleas from opponents of a new jail, Ventura County Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously rejected a last-minute appeal to halt construction of a facility to house 752 inmates on farmland west of Santa Paula.

The 5-0 vote clears the way for earthmovers to begin grading and other preparations for the first $53-million phase of the jail, which will eventually be expanded to hold 2,300 inmates.

County officials said the contractor, Banner Construction of Goleta, can begin work on the $826,083 job as soon as it has all the necessary permits, possibly as early as this week.

The five opponents who addressed the board on Tuesday asked supervisors to stop the new jail for the financial good of the county as well as to preserve its rural character.

Kenneth Chapman, one of those who filed the appeal, told the supervisors that they should not have picked land in the middle of the greenbelt between Ventura and Santa Paula, which he said is proving expensive to develop and operate.

“Cut your losses now and abandon this money pit that cannot be built without altering the character of the entire area and destroying a very precious resource, our county’s agricultural land,” Chapman said.

Despite the appeal’s rejection, Rosemary Woodlock, an attorney representing Citizens to Save Our Greenbelt, said she will seek a court injunction to stop grading if the group witnesses any damage to wetlands habitat along the Todd Barranca, disruption of nesting endangered birds or disturbance of archeological remains of American Indians.

“They still haven’t done their survey of the endangered least Bell’s vireos . . . so there is really nothing there they should be touching right now,” Woodlock said.

She said the group will also try to block necessary permits from the California Department of Fish and Game, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Citizens to Save Our Greenbelt filed suit last Wednesday against the county, alleging that environmental studies on the impacts of the jail are inadequate. But the suit, filed by Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara and now transferred to Woodlock, does not seek an immediate halt to all work.

In its appeal Tuesday, the group specifically asked the supervisors to overturn a permit issued by the Ventura County Planning Commission on May 7 because the environmental studies done on the project were inadequate.

Furthermore, the opponents argued that the Planning Commission violated procedural rules of the California Environmental Quality Act by not reviewing the environmental study before it was approved by the supervisors on April 23.

But Arthur Goulet, director of public works, said opponents were only trying to use the Environmental Quality Act “for a purpose for which it was never intended--to block a project.”

Supervisors rejected the appeal with little comment, saying they were satisfied that they and county staff had met all requirements.

Board Chairman John K. Flynn, who waged a losing battle to add on to the main jail at the County Government Center in Ventura, voted with the others four board members to reject the appeal.

“I have attempted in every way to appeal to my colleagues that I was correct,” Flynn said. “But there comes a point when you have to decide that the majority does rule.”

The existing jail holds more than double its designed capacity of 440 inmates. The new jail will supplement the old one, beginning with 400 cells. Situated on 157 acres at Todd Road near California 126, its capacity will expand as needed over 20 years and beyond.