Mall Expansion Foes Delay Petition Effort

Opponents of the recently approved $50-million Buenaventura Mall expansion plans got off to a slow start Tuesday.

When the Ventura City Council unanimously approved the expansion plans Monday night, opponents vowed to hit the streets Tuesday to collect signatures for a referendum that would force a special election on the issue in July.

But printing the petitions took a little longer than expected. So the team of volunteer and paid signature gatherers used by the opponents, Citizens Against the Sales Tax Giveaway, were nowhere to be seen Tuesday.

“We’ll be out by the end of the week,” said Jere Robings, a taxpayer advocate from Thousand Oaks and member of the citizens’ group. “Thursday or Friday at the latest.”

The expansion project would bring two new department stores and a second level of shops to the Buenaventura Mall. Developers also plan to build a three-story parking garage. The much-debated financing plan calls for the developers to foot the bill for about $12.6 million in street improvements, which the city would reimburse, with interest, over 20 years through the anticipated increase in sales-tax revenue. Last year, the citizens’ group gathered more than 13,000 signatures aimed at placing on the March 26 ballot an initiative prohibiting the tax rebate-style of financing. Because of the council’s green-light vote Monday, the initiative is not expected to have an effect on the mall’s expansion plans.

Members of the group said the council’s action forces them to proceed with referendum plans. A special election could cost taxpayers about $85,000.

“That was the city’s choice by making this decision,” said Lary Reid, co-chairman of the group. “We had 13,000 signatures that said this should come to the voters. They’re the ones who are spending that money, not us.”