Talk on Development Guides to Continue

A Ventura County task force formed to study tightening the county’s development policies agreed Wednesday to continue its discussion on the matter until next month.

The task force was organized in November to reevaluate the county’s so-called Guidelines for Orderly Development, a 27-year-old policy credited with protecting agricultural land from being overrun with urban sprawl.

Since then, the seven-member task force, which includes city and county officials, has met twice to discuss possible changes to the guidelines. It planned to hold its last meeting Wednesday, forwarding its recommendations to the Board of Supervisors.

But the group spent much of the two-hour meeting squabbling over complex planning procedures without ever addressing what many consider to be the central issue: Should the county change its definition of “rural” zoning, which now allows for one house per acre. In contrast, agricultural zoning allows only one residence for every 40 acres.

The group agreed to take up the issue at a 4 p.m. meeting Feb. 15 at the Ventura County Government Center.