Councilman Urges Law on Farm Rights : Agriculture: Steve Bennett, who angered ranchers over two ballot measures, says he wants growers protected from nuisance lawsuits.

After infuriating ranchers with his push to limit development on farmland, Ventura City Councilman Steve Bennett said Thursday he now plans to ask city leaders to adopt a right-to-farming ordinance to protect local growers from nuisance lawsuits.

“It’s logical that we need to do things to help farmers, to keep farming viable in the area,” Bennett said.

Farmers applauded the slow-growth councilman’s intentions. But, they said, for any ordinance to be effective, proponents must consult area growers.

“You need to talk to growers of all the different kinds of commodities that go on in the city limits to determine the types of conflicts there are,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

Bennett’s announcement came just two days after Ventura voters approved a new law that prohibits urban expansion onto thousands of acres of farmland in and around the city until 2030, unless voters decide otherwise.

Farmers adamantly opposed the measure, and an unsuccessful companion initiative, launching an aggressive campaign that cost opponents roughly $165,000.

Throughout the high-priced battle over measures I and J, growers griped about the difficulties associated with farming in an increasingly urban environment.

Farmers said homeowners who move near their ranches complain about dust, tractor noise, pesticide spraying and countless other less attractive fruits of the farming trade.

Bennett, one of the key organizers behind the twin ballot measures, says he has taken the growers’ gripes to heart and hopes to bring a right-to-farming proposal before the City Council in the next few months.

“Flat out, I was asked, ‘Would I support a right-to-farming law if it passed?’ And I am,” he said. “My sense is that these laws are not real restrictive legal things, they are more philosophical statements of support.”

Bennett said he intends to work with local farmers to model the ordinance after one already in place for the unincorporated areas of the county.

That ordinance, which Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail described as “about two sentences,” states that nuisances generated by farming operations are not punishable violations.

The law states that if a grower has been farming for three years or more, whatever normal and accepted farming practices used can continue no matter what development may move in next door, McPhail said. Other California counties employ much stronger right-to-farming ordinances, he said.

“People see agriculture as open space. Agriculture isn’t open space, it is a business,” McPhail said. “And [farmers] are going to do things, they are going to turn on the water pump and the wind machine when it’s cold.”

In Ventura, complaints often focus on noisy wind machines that turn on in the dead of winter nights to protect citrus groves from freezing, McPhail said. In Oxnard, residents often complain about loud guns that fire sporadically to chase birds away from ripe strawberry crops.

“I have gotten numerous complaints about farming practices,” said Todd Collart, a county land-use planner and a former Ventura city councilman. “We have said, ‘Well, these are normal customary practices. It is not a violation.’ ”

Farmers say the county needs to strengthen its own right-to-farming ordinance. “There’s a lot of talk to do that,” McPhail said. “And with what happened in Ventura Tuesday, we are pursuing how to go about doing that.”

But in the meantime, any effort the city of Ventura would take to create its own ordinance to protect farmers within city limits would be welcomed, the farmers say.

“I would welcome the opportunity to work with somebody who wants to develop a right-to-farming ordinance,” said Bob Pinkerton, an avocado and citrus grower. “I would really relish that opportunity.”

The idea of creating a city ordinance that would protect growers from nuisance lawsuits has a twin benefit, planners and farmers say. They say it could spark a dialogue between the city and growers, though the first words between those parties could be exchanged by lawyers.

The farmers predicted Wednesday that a lawsuit would be filed challenging the new ordinance on the grounds that it violates their property rights.

“I think the passage of [Measure] I really hurts the farmers,” Collart said. “They really believe they have been damaged by this.

“The city could do some things to mend fences,” Collart said. “This, in my estimation, mends fences.”