Greenbelt Proposal Is Debated : Oxnard: Speakers pack the council chambers to discuss whether the city should join in creating a buffer to development.

Developers and property owners squared off with open space advocates Tuesday night over a proposal before the Oxnard City Council to create a 4,575-acre coastal greenbelt between Oxnard and Ventura.

Dozens of speakers in the packed council chambers joined the debate that focused on whether Oxnard should enter an agreement with the city of Ventura and Ventura County to preserve the farmland as a buffer to development in the two cities for the next five years.

Opponents of the measure said they favored the protection of open space in the county, but that the greenbelt agreement would do little more than add another layer of unnecessary regulation.

“The greenbelt just adds another level of bureaucracy and increases restrictions on landowners,” said Charles Conway Jr., whose family runs the Hugo-McGrath farming operation in the area.

Opponents also argued that the agricultural land is already protected from development by zoning laws, rendering such an agreement moot. “If it doesn’t really change anything, then why do we really need it?” Conway asked.

Supporters of the agreement pointed to the rapid loss of agricultural land in the county, saying that without public commitment from the city, development of the valuable agricultural land was inevitable.

“The preservation of agricultural land means the preservation of agricultural jobs,” said Eileen McCarthy, a farm worker advocate and staff attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance. She challenged the City Council to hold to its promises to preserve agriculture in and around Oxnard.

Elizabeth Gausman, representing the Oxnard Shores homeowners, said she and her neighbors chose to live in the area, in part, because of its rural beauty.

Furthermore, she said, any development in the area would place an unfair tax burden on existing homeowners. “If there’s development, we’ll end up having to pay higher taxes for infrastructure development.”

Although city leaders hadn’t reached a decision as of late Tuesday, Mayor Manuel Lopez said he did not think the greenbelt agreement would stop development from encroaching on the diminishing farmland between Ventura and Oxnard.

“For all practical purposes, the greenbelts really haven’t worked the way they were supposed to,” Lopez said.

Such a greenbelt agreement would not be binding to either city government. But supporters contend that it would send a strong signal that the cities want to preserve the remaining orchards and farm fields between their borders.

Specifically, the proposed agreement would designate 4,575 acres as open space. The swath of land is located north from Wooley Road in Oxnard to the Santa Clara River, bordered on the east by Victoria Avenue and Harbor Boulevard on the west.

*

The proposed agreement was adopted by the Ventura Planning Commission and City Council with unanimous votes. But Oxnard planning commissioners initially deadlocked before narrowly approving the measure in July.

If approved, the agreement would create the sixth such greenbelt in Ventura County.

Dennis Tagashira, an Oxnard planning supervisor, said development has yet to reach the edge of farmland proposed for protection. He also said he thought it was unlikely that any development in the area would occur in the near future.

“We’re hoping we won’t get a leapfrogging of development,” Tagashira said. “But even that’s unlikely because the costs of improving the area are so high.”