Coalition Seeks Vote on Reinstating Planning Panel : Development: Oxnard petitioners aim for ’96 ballot. Council disbanded the commission in January.

Hoping to thwart what it sees as a City Council ploy to speed development in this rapidly growing city, a coalition of activists Monday submitted a petition that would let voters consider reinstating the Oxnard Planning Commission next fall.

The City Council dismantled the five-member panel in January despite widespread opposition from residents, saying business leaders were complaining that the council-appointed committee was a slothful bureaucracy of amateurs that was needlessly slowing progress.

In its place, council members created the Land-Use Advisers, a five-member board that includes a city official and four council-appointed residents.

The official, known as the hearing officer, was granted authority to single-handedly approve environmental reports and make other planning decisions--a move critics say was designed to spur growth in an already sprawling city.

The new panel immediately met with skepticism and disdain from many Oxnard residents, who believe it is simply a rubber-stamp for developers.

Furthermore, critics contend that the council should not allow a non-elected city official to individually make land-use decisions because it makes that official too powerful--and too vulnerable--to pressure from developers.

In March, a coalition led by former Oxnard Mayor Jane Tolmach began an initiative drive to bring back the Planning Commission, saying Oxnard needed a true watchdog of growth and urban planning guidelines.

The group submitted 6,135 signatures to the Oxnard city clerk’s office Monday morning--more than the 5,219 needed to place a measure on the November, 1996, ballot. City Clerk Daniel Martinez said he will verify whether the signatures are valid within 30 days.

The petition seeks to bring back the Planning Commission in its original form: seven residents appointed by a majority of the City Council. The council had reduced the panel from seven to five members last year.

John C. Zaragoza, a former Oxnard refuse superintendent who ran unsuccessfully for the City Council in 1994, was among the activists who delivered the petition to Oxnard City Hall.

“People said they wanted to be more involved in the planning of their city, and they were concerned especially about the hearing officer,” Zaragoza said. “I don’t believe the majority of the City Council is in tune with the public on this.”

Mayor Manuel Lopez, the only council member who voted to retain the Planning Commission, said residents believed the council ignored their opinions and in response reacted with anger.

“You need different voices in government. The Planning Commission has historically been a different voice, and I think the Land-Use Advisers, for whatever reason, sound a lot like the City Council,” said Lopez, a former planning commissioner.

Lopez added that he would like the council to reinstate the Planning Commission without waiting for the ballot initiative. But he does not believe his fellow council members will do so.

Councilman Dean Maulhardt said he believes the people should decide whether to return to the Planning Commission. But until November, he said, the public should give the new system a chance.

“The goal was not to make it easier for developers to build anything and everything in the city,” Maulhardt said. “The goal was to bring the best developments forward. If that’s not working, well then we should fix it.”

Don Facciano of the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce said he does not understand why many residents are so upset the panel is gone. After all, he said, three of the four Land-Use Advisers are former planning commissioners, and the panel as a whole has yet to do much of anything.

“They’re afraid that the local citizen doesn’t have any voice, and we feel that they do,” Facciano said of the critics. “Why don’t they give it a chance? What have the Land-Use Advisers done that the Planning Commission wouldn’t have? Nothing.”

Lopez said that for many residents, the sense that the council disregarded their opinion is enough to fuel opposition.

“I’ve been in office a long time, and I don’t think the public likes to have someone’s will imposed on them,” Lopez said. “I think they feel like they were strong-armed on this, and they don’t agree with it. I think there’s a lot of hard feelings.”