Threat of Development on Orchard Renewed

A year after winning election on an environmental platform, Ventura Councilman Steve Bennett is proposing a ballot measure that would circumvent a save-the-greenbelt initiative by exempting city land that has been at the center of a tug of war between developers and preservationists.

The threat of development on the 87-acre lemon orchard at Telegraph Road and Petit Avenue was the reason nearby homeowners proposed the greenbelt initiative last spring. The measure would forbid development of any land designated agricultural until 2010, unless the project was put to a citywide vote.

The orchard carries such agricultural zoning, but it can be developed if the council amends its Comprehensive Plan.

The greenbelt initiative--called Save Our Agricultural Resources--is planned for the November, 1995, ballot. The council will discuss Monday whether to follow that initiative with the measure proposed by Bennett.

That one would exempt the orchard from the new law as long as its development was somehow linked to construction of a regional park--a major goal of the council. The council wants to use the orchard as its trump card in cutting a deal for an eastside park, trading the orchard and permission to develop homes on it for a park site.

“This means the SOAR initiative won’t slow us down at all,” Bennett said. “We can keep moving right on forward.”

Bennett, who helped pass out petitions for the greenbelt initiative this summer, said his proposal is not an attempt to subvert the voter-sponsored measure to preserve eastside farmland.

“This is a question to the voters: Is an east-end regional park a good enough reason to change (the orchard’s) zoning?” he said. “We need to know that. If we don’t get to ask that question in November, 1995, we may not get to ask it for another two years” when Ventura holds its next city election.

But some supporters of the greenbelt initiative immediately cried foul.

“I’m extremely disappointed in Steve Bennett,” said Sheri Vincent, one of the initiative’s organizers. “It’s the ultimate slap in the face, that’s what it really is. (The orchard) is only one piece of property, but it’s the catalyst that started this whole initiative.”

If both the greenbelt and the city initiatives pass by simple majority next November, the council would not have to ask the voters’ approval before permitting construction on the orchard.

Many on the council oppose the greenbelt initiative, saying it is a cumbersome and unwise method of charting city development.

But Councilman Jim Monahan said he thinks Bennett’s proposal sends the wrong signal.

“I don’t see how we can take city property and treat it any differently than privately owned property,” he said.

The issue of what to do with the lemon orchard became a hot topic this year when developer Ron Hertel offered to swap his 94 acres at Telephone and Kimball roads for the city’s orchard. He offered to give Ventura $2 million toward building a regional park on his land in exchange for permission to build about 400 homes on the city’s property.

When residents who lived adjacent to the lemon orchard heard about the proposal, they rallied in opposition and soon began collecting signatures for the greenbelt initiative.