Oxnard OKs New ‘Rewards’ for Builders

Hoping to encourage builders to adopt higher standards, the Oxnard City Council on Tuesday approved plans for a “quality rewards” program, where projects of exceptional design would receive favorable treatment.

Under the new program, approved by a vote of 4 to 0, development plans that are considered remarkable by Oxnard’s design and review committee would be given special priority by city planners--a variation from the city’s former first-come, first-served system. Councilman Bedford Pinkard was absent.

“What happens is that developers come to Oxnard with the thought that they can get (by) with a substandard project,” said Councilman Andres Herrera.

Council members asked city staff to come up with a stricter set of design guidelines for development, which may require an amendment to the city’s General Plan.

The City Council also assigned more authority to a city staff member serving on the Oxnard land-use advisory committee, which replaced the city’s Planning Commission.

The committee is made up of four residents and a hearing officer--a city official with planning expertise. Council members disbanded the Planning Commission in January, arguing that its members were amateurs who were slowing down progress without cause.

Yet when the City Council appointed the members of the committee two weeks later, it chose three former planning commissioners and a local mathematician with no land-use experience.

Richard Maggio, Oxnard’s community development director, was appointed to the committee by City Manager Tom Frutchey.

Although Maggio has been serving temporarily on the committee, he will not serve as the hearing officer. The city has created a new position and plans to hire someone else to perform the hearing officer’s job. In addition to the duties as hearing officer, the new staff member will serve as an architectural watchdog, to ensure that there is a uniformity of design in Oxnard, officials said.

“We need someone who can walk through the process and make sure that what we’re supposed to be getting is what we end up getting,” said Councilman Tom Holden. “We want to do something on a large scale--not necessarily have everything be stucco with a tile roof, but something more.”

In a separate motion, the council voted 3-1 to give the hearing officer the power to approve all parcel maps, zoning variances, planned development permits and special-use permits that are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act and are therefore considered minor by the city.

Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, who had lobbied to keep the Planning Commission, voted against the motion.

Last month, the council rejected residents’ contentions that such unchecked power may result in corruption and voted to give the hearing officer authority to make some planning decisions--such as the approval of environmental reports--by himself.

The land use advisory committee, officially called the Land Use Advisors, is under attack by a coalition of former Oxnard politicians that has begun a drive to reinstate the Planning Commission.