Council Reaffirms Stand to Keep Development in Check

Reminding county leaders of a decade-old promise to limit urban sprawl, the Ventura City Council passed a resolution Monday night to reaffirm the county’s Guidelines for Orderly Development, which call for keeping urban development within or next to city boundaries.

A recent decision by the Board of Supervisors, which allows a developer to move forward with an environmental study for a 189-home project on Somis farmland, has city leaders concerned that the spirit of those guidelines is being compromised.

The cities of Santa Paula, Thousand Oaks and Camarillo have already taken similar actions to reaffirm the guidelines, which is what prompted Ventura to draft its resolution.

“Some of the other cities have been concerned about it, so we decided to bring it before the council,” said Ann Grant-McLaughlin, an associate planner for the city of Ventura.

At a recent meeting of the Assn. of Ventura County Cities, city leaders expressed concern with the project and called for the guidelines to be clarified and strengthened.

“They felt that the intent of the guidelines were not being met,” Grant-McLaughlin said.

A divided Board of Supervisors voted in July to allow Knightsbridge Holdings Inc. to apply for a rezoning of 195 acres in an unincorporated area north of Camarillo. The company wants to change the zoning from agricultural to rural so it can build 189 homes on what is now a lemon and orange grove.

The board also voted to let the developer conduct an environmental study of the project.

Councilman Steve Bennett said the split vote of the county supervisors “shows how tenuous the greenbelt protection really is if you only rely on the elected officials.”

The Ventura City Council voted 5 to 0 to approve the ordinance. Mayor Tom Buford and Councilman Gary Tuttle were absent.

Ventura’s resolution will be sent to the Board of Supervisors, the Local Agency Formation Commission and the Ventura Council of Governments.