Ventura Feeling Squeezed by Population Cap

With rapid growth swelling the city’s population beyond its end-of-the-century limit, staff members are now recommending that the self-imposed population cap be abolished to allow future housing projects to come forward.

Monday, the City Council will consider wiping out two short sentences in Ventura’s moderate growth plan that state the city’s population should not exceed 105,000 residents by 2000.

While a majority of the seven-member council supports abolishing the 2000 benchmark, three others say tinkering with the city’s chief planning document could open the door for more development than the city can handle.

“There is the potential for great abuse,” Councilman Steve Bennett said.

Adopted seven years ago after weeks of public debate, the city’s Comprehensive Plan states that population should not exceed 115,000 by 2010, contingent on the availability of water and other resources.

To keep population growth at a steady pace, the council set an interim limit of 105,000 for 2000.

But new population statistics indicate that Ventura has nearly reached that limit--four years ahead of schedule.

As of December, the population of the city’s planning area was 104,423, according to a city report. The planning area includes Saticoy and other unincorporated county land that borders Ventura.

Factoring in an additional 3,142 residents expected to move into housing projects recently approved by the City Council, Ventura’s population is expected to reach more than 107,560 by the end of the century--about 1,500 more residents than the Comprehensive Plan mandates.

As a result, city officials are recommending that council members amend the plan to delete the 2000 benchmark and rely on the more distant population cap for planning purposes.

“We are basically saying, get rid of the year 2000 limit and use the 2010 limit,” Community Services Director Everett Millais said.

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But deleting two lines from the growth plan is not as easy as it may sound. Millais suggests it would take about six months for city staff members to study the environmental impacts of such an action, which would have to go through a public hearing process.

The recommendation has the support of most council members, who say the 2000 guidelines are just that--guidelines that should not be set in stone.

“The key is that this is a plan, this is a guide. It is based on speculation of numbers,” Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said. “We simply can’t stop growth, that’s a given.”

But Councilman Gary Tuttle balks at the idea of deleting the population cap, established in 1989 after a series of grueling late-night hearings that pitted environmentalists against the business community.

In an interview last week, Tuttle criticized the actions of past councils, which he says exacerbated the population spike. And he said this council should abide by the limitations of the Comprehensive Plan.

“I think I have heard loud and clear from the citizens that we have enough houses,” Tuttle said.

Councilman Jim Monahan, who clashed with the council’s slow-growth majority in the late 1980s, also expressed reluctance with the staff recommendation.

“I have intended to talk to Everett [Millais],” Monahan said. “I am going to be very cautious about going over what our projections should be. He is going to have to convince me that this is what we should do.”

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Bennett worries that eliminating the cap would be a “quick fix” to more complex problems within the Comprehensive Plan and the city’s housing allocation process.

“They did the [plan] before the census, and then they turned around and said the census is larger so now we have to change it,” Bennett said. “It just doesn’t seem like the thing meshes together very logically.”

A bastion of slow-growth politics only a few years ago, Ventura was the 15th fastest-growing city in the state in 1994. The city grew by 3,600 people to 100,700.

Although population statistics for 1995 have not been released, the city awarded nearly 500 residential building permits last year, which translates to about 1,230 new residents, a city report shows.

The county also awarded permits to projects inside Ventura’s planning area, such as Saticoy, the Montalvo neighborhood and areas around north Ventura Avenue, which contributed an additional 2,490 residents, the report shows.

City planners say there are several reasons for the recent growth. More people are doubling up per household. Projects stymied by the recession and the city’s slow-growth politics are now being built.

And the annexation of 1,000-resident Cabrillo Village two years ago has spiked the population totals, planners say.

“I imagine there will be those that say it is a sign of those pro-growth councils,” Millais said, “but I really think it is a combination of things.”

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As long as the council agrees to abide by the population cap for 2010, Councilman Jim Friedman says he sees no problem with adjusting the population benchmark.

“I think that it puts the city on notice if we say, ‘Look, we’ve made adjustments for the year 2000 with the agreement that we are going to stick to the numbers for the year 2010,’ ” Friedman said.

In coming months, the City Council will enter the housing allocation process, in which developers compete for the right to build houses.

A handful of major residential developments are expected to come forward during the next two years, projects that could be stalled if the population cap does not change, city officials said.

“The risks are that, technically, we would have to freeze all future allocations and that may or may not be appropriate,” Councilman Ray Di Guilio said.

One such project is a proposal by Newport Beach developer Wittenberg-Livingston Inc. to build 430 residences on a 62-acre parcel in the city’s east end.

The developer wants permission to build housing in exchange for donating an adjacent 22-acre parcel, which would be used as the site for a war veterans’ home. Last week, council members endorsed the plan, which would bring 400 veterans to the city.

Another large residential project now in its infancy is a Ventura Port District proposal to build 300 residences, either condominiums or apartment units, on a vacant 20-acre parcel near the harbor.

Although a housing allocation request is not expected for another year, the council will consider a zoning change for the project Monday night.

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And the other major project that could be impacted is the development of 900 residences downtown, Mayor Jack Tingstrom said.

Those units have already been allocated. But approving downtown housing projects would increase the city’s population substantially.

“This is going to be a gut check,” Tingstrom said. “People want the 900 units downtown. If you want that, then you are going to have to take a look at that population cap.”

Friedman said the veterans’ home is another project in need of further consideration. And if that means adjusting the Comprehensive Plan’s numbers for 2000, he will support lifting the cap.

“What concerns me,” Friedman said, “is that we have the possibility of a veterans’ home here and I would sure hate to think that we would not be able to go forward . . . because of restrictions of arbitrary numbers back in 1989.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Comprehensive Plan

In 1989, the Ventura City Council adopted a moderate growth plan that sets limits on how much the city’s population should grow by 2010. The following is the text of the Comprehensive Plan as it relates to population statistics:

“The maximum population allocation for the Planning Area to April 1, 2010 (the Federal Census date) should not exceed 115,000 subject to available resources and indexed to the Federal Census. As of April 1, 2000, the maximum population allocation should not exceed 102,000, unless adequate water supplies are secured. If adequate water supplies are secured, the maximum population as of April 1, 2000, should not exceed 105,000, indexed to the Federal Census. Indexed to the Federal Census in this instance means that the population figures of 105,000 and 115,000 would be adjusted based on the differential between an estimated April 1, 1990 population of 94,000 and the actual population determined by the 1990 Federal Census *.”

* The 1990 U.S. census population for the city of Ventura was 92,575. The population including Ventura’s planning area was 98,578.

Source: City of Ventura