OJAI VALLEY : County OKs Plan Limiting Growth

A new plan limiting growth in the Ojai Valley won unanimous approval Tuesday from the county Board of Supervisors.

“The plan focuses future development in existing urban areas and keeps open space . . . open,” county Planner Lisa Woodburn said.

The Ojai Valley Area Plan also limits growth by restricting subdivisions, limiting California 33 to two lanes and creating a special zone protecting ridgelines from development.

The limiting of subdivisions was a sensitive topic last month when the plan was first sent to the supervisors for a vote.

After an hour of impassioned pleas from more than a dozen landowners, the supervisors sent the plan back to the Planning Department for revisions.

The landowners, who live on large tracts around Sulphur and Black mountains and who can now subdivide their property into 40-acre lots, would have been limited to subdividing into 80-acre lots.

The revised General Plan exempts their parcels from the more stringent subdivision laws.

“We’re talking about the possibility of another 25 homes being built one day,” Woodburn said. “That’s not going to make or break the plan.”

Currently, subdividing land in the Ojai Valley is a moot point because of strict federal air quality standards and the county’s near-moratorium on new housing that affects traffic on the badly congested California 33.

The plan, which is expected to shape development in the 74,000-acre Ojai Valley for the next 10 to 15 years, goes into effect in 60 days. The first Ojai Valley plan was adopted in 1963 and last updated in 1979.