815-Home Development Plan Withdrawn : Ventura: Brad Jones decides not to present his proposal at council meeting. He says he hopes to meet with neighbors who opposed project for 222 acres of agricultural land.

Backing down from the prospect of a messy public defeat, a Ventura developer who had hoped to build a large housing project on agricultural land on the city’s east end withdrew his proposal hours before Monday’s City Council meeting.

Brad Jones, in partnership with the property owner, Limco Del Mar Ltd., had sought to build 815 houses on 222 acres of lemon orchards just east of North Hill Road, between Foothill and Telegraph roads.

In a letter to the city Monday, Jones said the developers “had received comments and critique regarding our application from several city representatives and other members of the community, which we would like to evaluate before proceeding further.”

In brief remarks to the council Monday, Jones said he wants to meet with residents to discuss the project. He declined in an interview later to say whether he hopes to pursue a revised version of the development or scrap it altogether.

Councilman Gregory L. Carson said he encouraged Jones in a meeting last week to drop the proposal because a majority of the council would be unlikely to support the project.

Carson said that voting in favor of the proposal would mean changing the city’s Comprehensive Plan, which dictates that the agricultural greenbelt be off-limits to development until 2010.

“I told him that to get a ‘no’ vote from the council would be detrimental,” Carson said Monday. “I think he needs to sell it to the community first before selling it to the council.”

Since last week, residents near the greenbelt have been circulating petitions and calling council members urging them to vote against Jones’ project. Residents say new houses are not needed in the area and would create huge traffic problems.

“We’ll make this into a slum city,” said Sy Einstoss, who lives near the proposed development. “We can’t accommodate any more people.”

Dozens of residents who did not know about Jones’ last-minute withdrawal showed up at Monday’s meeting to oppose the project, some carrying protest signs.

“This may just be a delaying tactic,” Einstoss said at the meeting. “He may come back in six months” to resubmit the proposal.

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Also at Monday’s meeting, the council discussed another project that would affect the agricultural buffer on the east end.

Ventura-based developer Ron Hertel asked the council for permission to proceed with his plan, which involves swapping his 92 acres in the greenbelt for 87 acres of city-owned land at Telegraph Road and Petit Avenue.

Hertel would build single-family houses on the city-owned land, and give the city $2 million to build a park on the land he owns at Telephone and Kimball roads.

The council debated late into the evening whether to allow the land swap. Council members were faced with deciding whether to permit the plan to go forward or rejecting it outright. Even if council members grant preliminary permission for the plan to move ahead, they could withhold final approval until later.

The 900-acre greenbelt, which stretches from Foothill Road to the Santa Clara River, was established by the City Council in 1989. The land is in an unincorporated area of the county, but is surrounded by the city and could be annexed at any time with the approval of county officials.

Although the city’s Comprehensive Plan dictates that development of the greenbelt not be considered before 2010, a majority vote of the council could change that policy at any time.