OXNARD : Measure for Planning Board Fails to Qualify
Backers of a ballot initiative to reinstate Oxnard’s Planning Commission have failed to gather the required number of signatures to place the measure on the November 1996 ballot, county election officials said.
Commission supporters fell 471 signatures short of the 5,219 that were needed. This week’s count of all signatures confirmed the county’s preliminary determination, which was made after analyzing an 8% sample of the signatures.
Supporters insisted that the county count all the signatures, not just sample them.
Top Oxnard city officials refused to request a full recount. But the City Council, bowing to community pressure, made the request.
Another effort to qualify the measure can still be mounted. The deadline to qualify an initiative for the fall ballot is several months away, City Clerk Daniel Martinez said.
“They’ve got plenty of time,” he said.
The Planning Commission was replaced by a land use advisory panel earlier this year, which prompted complaints that the new body is less responsive to the public.
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