VENTURA : City OKs Funds for Design Guidelines
Hoping to beautify future housing tracts in east Ventura and limit the number of retaining walls that encircle developments, Ventura city officials have moved forward with plans to enact stricter design standards.
The Ventura City Council voted unanimously Monday to spend up to $25,000 for a consultant to prepare guidelines for future development throughout Ventura, with specific attention being focused on east Ventura subdivisions.
Developers of neighborhoods larger than 15 homes would be subject to the design standards, which would enable city planners to require builders to create more attractive projects.
“I don’t think anyone can be overjoyed at sound walls and retaining walls,” Mayor Tom Buford said before Monday’s meeting. “In a community that’s building and growing house by house instead of tract by tract, it’s a lot easier to have a sound design and residential system that’s really logical.”
City officials last year approved a set of stricter design standards for the historic downtown section of the city, a move that merchants and council members said would preserve the integrity of the commercial core.
But planners said Monday that similar rules should be developed for the remainder of the city.
The standards and guidelines will be prepared later this year, and the details would be returned to the council for consideration at a later meeting.
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