OXNARD : New Land-Use Panel Will Be Discussed

The Oxnard City Council and the city’s new land-use advisory committee will hold a joint meeting Tuesday night to discuss the new panel’s roles and responsibilities.

The Land Use Advisers were created in January to replace the Oxnard Planning Commission, which was slowing growth by dragging out the planning process, according to some council members and city staff.

The Oxnard Chamber of Commerce and other business leaders have praised the City Council for creating the new committee--composed of four residents and a city staff member--saying the Planning Commission was a slothful bureaucratic body.

But some residents have complained that because the new panel includes a city staff member in a voting capacity, it will lead to conflicts of interest.

The staff member also has the power to make some decisions by himself, and critics say they are worried that important planning decisions will be made out of public view.

Among the topics to be discussed Tuesday are which land-use decisions the city staff member will be able to make on his own and how much it will cost to appeal an advisory panel decision to the City Council.

A group of former Oxnard leaders, including a former mayor and city clerk, has begun a petition drive to reinstate the Planning Commission. To do so, it needs to gather the signatures of 10% of the city’s 52,000 registered voters within the next five months.