Builders and Residents Debate Planned Housing Developments : Growth: Concerns about crowding, ecological damage meet economic benefits head-on.

Ventura home builders and their potential neighbors packed Ventura City Hall on Monday as the City Council prepared to debate late into the night how many houses should be built next year and where.

Altogether, 49 speakers lined up to testify at the council’s wooden podium.

Developers were there to push the merits of 11 separate construction proposals competing for a limited number of housing allocations to be awarded by the council.

“All the Avenue needs is a major catalyst for redevelopment,” said Bill Neel in a written speech urging council members to give him permission to build homes as part of his redevelopment plan for northern Ventura Avenue. “We are the catalyst. All we need are allocations and approvals from the city.”

While Neel’s neighbors prepared to spar with him over the suitability of his plans, east Ventura residents were ready to debate the merits of a controversial land-swap proposal that seeks permission to build 437 houses on farmland.

Elaina Fletcher, who lives in a house that would abut the proposed development, argued that builder Ron Hertel’s project would make dangerous inroads into the city’s carefully preserved agricultural greenbelt.

Hertel has proposed to build on land that the city has designated as farmland until 2010.

“It’ll set a precedent,” Fletcher said. “It’ll open a door to any developer from anywhere. Guess what? You open a door, and you can’t close it.”

Collectively, developers have asked for permission to build 2,600 dwellings. But the city’s General Plan limits the council to hand out 1,018 housing allocations through 1999.

Some council members say they would like to dole out far less than that, giving perhaps 200 allocations this year and leaving the rest for later.

As for Hertel’s proposal, he has offered to give Ventura $2 million to build a regional park on his 94 acres, at the corner of Telephone and Kimball roads, in exchange for permission to construct 437 homes on the city’s 87-acre lemon grove, at Telegraph Road and Petit Avenue.

Both sites are designated by the city to remain as farmland until the year 2010, and the council would have to amend the city’s General Plan before Hertel could build a single house.

The proposal has captured the imagination of community sports enthusiasts. Team organizers held hearings at City Hall on the park concept and are now trying to organize a nonprofit corporation that could run a park which would include ball fields and a swimming pool.

Yet it has also attracted numerous opponents, many of whom are homeowners near the proposed development. They are so outraged that they started a ballot initiative designed to stop the Hertel development or any others proposed for the city’s designated greenbelt. The measure would require any project proposed in the greenbelt to first receive approval by a majority of city voters.

The council must also grapple with a high-profile proposal to construct 120 homes on Ventura Avenue, between Stanley Avenue and Seneca Street. Backed by Kinko’s Service Corp., the development includes plans for an expanded corporate headquarters.

If it is approved, local business owners may sue the city over potential environmental problems on the property. If not approved, Kinko’s has hinted it may leave Ventura.

The proposal originally was called the Neel-Huntsinger-Kinko’s project. But the Huntsinger family dropped out of the deal last week under intensive pressure from the owners of neighboring industries who fear a zoning change would eventually put them out of business.

Earlier this month, 14 of these business owners hired environmental attorney Glen Reiser, who soon came up with allegations of possible chemical contamination on pieces of the Huntsinger property. Days after Reiser threatened a lawsuit, the Huntsingers dropped out of the project, saying they did not want to anger their longtime neighbors.

The Neel family and Kinko’s officials, however, vow to press forward with the project.