Legal Caution Slows Progress Toward Final OK of Mall Expansion

A legal glitch forced city leaders to put the brakes Friday on fast-track plans to expand the Buenaventura Mall, delaying final approval of the $50-million project until later this month.

Meanwhile, backers of a March ballot initiative targeting the much-debated, tax-sharing arrangement the city reached with mall developers said they will pursue a referendum to overturn the City Council’s decision if the project is approved.

The City Council was scheduled to vote on the expansion Monday, but will postpone that decision until Jan. 29 to clear up a technical loose end, city officials said Friday.

A legal description of the 58-acre mall site was not included in a thick stack of documents presented to council members for review two weeks ago.

City Atty. Peter Bulens recommended that the council hold off on approving the project until the property description, called “Exhibit A,” is added to the development agreement.

“There was a large bundle of material that was provided to us by various people involved in this,” Bulens said Friday. “That Exhibit A was supposed to be among that 20-odd pieces of paper, and it wasn’t. I really don’t have any idea why.”

City officials said the council could proceed without the document, which could be added later. But given the potential for legal challenges, Bulens decided to err on the side of caution.

“Maybe I am being conservative,” Bulens said, “but I think it ought to be there.”

Attorneys representing the city of Oxnard and The Esplanade shopping center have already contested the project’s environmental impact report. Ventura leaders expect both parties to file lawsuits challenging the expansion once approved.

Although the council voted 7 to 0 to support the project earlier this month, it must come back for a second reading and a final vote.

City leaders, who have been following a tight timeline to get the project approved, said the setback was unfortunate but necessary.

“We are making sure all the i’s are dotted and the Ts are crossed,” Councilman Ray Di Guilio said.

“It is a minor change,” Mayor Jack Tingstrom said. “But he [Bulens] doesn’t want anybody to have any room for further legal action.”

Leaders of the anti-tax rebate ballot measure were poised to launch a petition drive for a referendum Tuesday, a day after the council’s anticipated vote in favor of the project.

Ventura businessman Lary Reid said he hopes the council will now decide to postpone its vote until after the March 26 election, allowing city residents their say on the mall’s financing package when they vote on Measure S.

“They’ve only got about eight weeks to wait,” Reid said. “We were hoping that they would give the citizens of Ventura a chance to vote on the initiative.”

If the council goes ahead and approves the project on Jan. 29, however, Reid said his committee would pursue another ballot measure to overturn the decision.

“We are prepared to go ahead with a referendum,” said Reid, co-chair of Citizens Against the Sales Tax Giveaway, the Esplanade-backed committee that qualified Measure S for the March 26 ballot.

The group, which is receiving the bulk of its financial support from the owners of The Esplanade, would need to collect 6,026 signatures for a referendum.

Reid said his committee would have to hire professional signature gatherers to meet the 30-day deadline. “We did it in about 30 days before,” Reid said. “We are going to have to hire signature gatherers again.”