Ventura Council Delays Vote on Housing Project

Reacting to sharp criticism from residents who accused them of being secretive, Ventura City Council members backed off on a vote on a 146-unit, low-income housing project in east Ventura, saying they should have called a public hearing on the matter.

“I can’t help but sympathize with the residents who said they haven’t heard about this” in time to gather enough information, said City Councilman Gregory L. Carson before the council voted 5 to 1 Monday night to delay a decision on the 23-acre project. Councilman Steve Bennett was absent, and Councilman Jim Monahan voted against the motion, saying he did not like the proposed site just north of the Santa Paula Freeway and east of Saticoy Avenue.

The nonprofit developer, Saticoy-based Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., had asked the council to give its non-binding “conceptual approval.”

Such a vote would have let Cabrillo officials know if council members seemed amenable to the project’s scope and site and if they would consider pledging city redevelopment funds to the development.

“It gives us as a developer a chance to find out whether we are wasting our time and your time,” Rodney Fernandez, Cabrillo’s executive director, told the council.

Instead, council members asked Cabrillo officials to take the project back to the local community for further discussions and to hold a public hearing with the city’s Redevelopment Agency if Cabrillo still wishes to apply for a $200,000 loan from redevelopment funds.

Monday night’s vote was not listed on the agenda as a public hearing, meaning no notices were sent out or posted alerting residents to the impending council action.

The residents who did learn about the agenda item and showed up at the meeting were not happy with the council. “The public doesn’t have the information or the knowledge out there at this point to make a decision,” said Susan Moffatt, who lives near the proposed development.

The development--which would be just outside the city limits and would have to be annexed if it were approved--includes construction of 80 apartments for very low-income residents and 66 single-family houses for low-income residents.

According to 1993 figures, low-income residents are families of four earning $39,700 or less per year, city officials say. Very low-income residents are families of four making $27,600 or less per year, city officials say.

The city has already pledged the $350,000 in federal, low-income housing funds it received for 1994 to Cabrillo for use in a low-income project.

If eventually awarded full approval, it would be the first low-income housing development authorized by the city in more than six years, said Everett Millais, the city’s director of community services. Cabrillo is the largest private builder of low-income housing in the county.

Aside from their frustration at the City Council’s hearing process, local residents attacked the project itself for its self-stated mission to house poor people.

“It seems to me that Ventura has higher-priority projects than this particular one,” said Dick Harp, a nearby resident, adding that he thinks the city already has plenty of low-income housing complexes.

But Cabrillo officials countered that the city is officially deficient, by federal standards, in its supply of low-cost rental and for-sale housing.

“If not now, when? If not Cabrillo, who?” Fernandez asked council members. “Cabrillo’s the only one doing this. If we don’t do it now, who will do it when?”