ELECTIONS / VENTURA BALLOT MEASURES : Debate Held on Preserving Farmland--With Farmers Opposing 2 Proposals

A panel of well-dressed lawyers and politicians on Thursday debated a panel of farmers over the preservation of the city’s remaining farmland.

But it wasn’t the open-collared farmers arguing to protect Ventura’s rich agricultural tradition. It was the panel in the business suits.

“The leaders of the agriculture community are simply more interested in the profits of developing their land than in long-term agricultural protection,” said Ventura City Councilman Steve Bennett, a conservation-minded politician.

The farmers said that Bennett has missed the point. They said they oppose two agricultural-preservation measures on Ventura’s November ballot out of fear of pushing development into the large farming belts between Ventura County cities.

“Growth should happen in the cities,” said Mike Mobley, president of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “That’s why we have cities. If you cannot build in the cities, it is going to push growth into unincorporated areas.”

At issue in the noontime debate were Measure I and Measure J on Ventura’s Nov. 7 ballot, which would block housing subdivisions and other urban development of farmland in and around Ventura for the next 35 years--unless the development was approved by a majority of city voters.

The ballot measures have pitted environmentalists and homeowners attached to their neighborhood’s lush avocado and citrus orchards against the Chamber of Commerce, home builders and landowners.

And they have forced the county’s agricultural leaders into an awkward position for debate: fighting against these proposed farmland protections while supporting the need to maintain the county’s overall agricultural acreage.

As part of their arguments, farm bureau leaders said they resent that they were not consulted during the drafting of the two ballot measures. They said the proposals would shackle agriculture rather than help make farming more viable and profitable.

Bennett said some farmers have confided to him that they support the measures as an aid in making long-term investment decisions. But they are afraid to go public, he said, because they fear ridicule from their peers.

“The bottom line of this issue is that some farmers oppose this because they want to preserve their option to develop their land,” Bennett said.

He and a fellow panel member, former Ventura Mayor Richard L. Francis, said the measures are needed to preserve Ventura farmland that is rapidly falling to piecemeal development approved by the City Council’s pro-growth majority.

Slow-growth activists initially gathered the signatures for only one ballot initiative. That proposal, now called Measure J, would alter city zoning laws to preserve farmland until the year 2030.

Then Francis drafted a second initiative, now called Measure I, closely following the language of a Napa County ordinance that protects farmland by amending that area’s comprehensive plan.

Francis, a Ventura lawyer, said he copied the Napa County law because it has withstood extensive legal challenges and been upheld by the California Supreme Court.

Farm Bureau Director Rex Laird on Thursday predicted that Ventura’s measures, if approved by the voters, would provoke lawsuits that would cost the city precious tax dollars in legal fees.

But attorney Susan L. Goodkin, who was on the panel of supporters, said she believed Measure I to be undefeatable in court. She wrote legal arguments in support of the Napa County initiative when it was before the state Supreme Court.

“My advice to anybody who is thinking about challenging this is that they talk to a land-use attorney and not waste their money,” Goodkin told the audience. “Any challenge to this would be a loser.”

The debate was presented by the Buenaventura Forum, a occasional meeting sponsored by Ventura Mayor Tom Buford and several corporations to encourage debate about public policies.

The crowd of businessmen and businesswomen included more slow-growth activists than usual, Buford said. But it was dominated by local farmers, most of them wearing stickers: “Don’t Be Fooled! Vote No on Measures I & J.”

The quiet crowd burst into applause only once, when Bob Tobias, a third-generation Ventura farmer, stood up to make an impassioned speech about his love for farming and preserving the good life in Ventura.

“I believe that these people are here because the believe they are doing the right thing,” Tobias said about the panel of slow-growth activists. “I find it offensive to hear that I am here to develop my land.”

In a related development, the Ventura County Republican Central Committee on Wednesday night unanimously approved a resolution opposing the two ballot measures on the grounds that they violate the Republican tenet of protecting property rights.