VENTURA : Group Tells Council of Housing Fight

Residents of the Heather Glen subdivision in east Ventura have put the City Council on alert that they will not abandon their fight to stop a local housing project.

Several members of the group Save Our Neighborhood addressed the council late Monday to remind the panel that they still oppose the 23-acre house and apartment complex off Citrus Drive.

“We’ve been watching (council meetings on television) at home,” Heather Glen homeowner Don Millsap told the council. “We are not in the background.”

Property owners last year banded together to oppose the development, but have not been vocal for several months.

Millsap said the group has collected more than 750 signatures from nearby residents opposed to the project. The group plans to present the petition to the city when the council begins considering the development.

But officials at Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit group proposing the project, said they have scaled back their plans because of the neighbors’ complaints.

Rodney Fernandez, Cabrillo’s executive director, said the project now calls for 135 units, down from the 146 initially proposed. The Cabrillo group also plans to include a park, community center and other recreational facilities within the complex.

“This is going to be a good, safe place to raise your family and take part in what the facilities are going to offer,” Fernandez said.

City staff members are reviewing the initial plans, which will be forwarded to the environmental review committee within a month, Fernandez said. He added that the project should reach the Planning Commission by July.