Next Battle Over Mall Expansion Takes Shape

The city won Round 1, but the fight over the planned expansion of Buenaventura Mall is not over yet.

The anti-mall initiative, Measure S, was shot down by nearly two-thirds of the city’s voters. Now, supporters and opponents are gearing up for their next battle: a referendum aimed at overturning the City Council’s approval of the $50-million project and its much-debated financing plan.

“We are not out of the woods yet,” Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said Wednesday.

Backers of Measure S, which garnered only 35% of Tuesday’s votes, launched a companion referendum drive in February after realizing that their measure would not directly halt the mall deal.

The council effectively sidestepped the initiative by approving the mall project two months before the election.

Last month, opponents turned in petitions with more than 8,000 signatures supporting a referendum. They need roughly 6,000 valid signatures to force a July special election that is expected to cost about $80,000.

The county elections division will verify the signatures by April 10.

Supporters say they are confident the referendum will qualify. And although Measure S was soundly defeated, they remain optimistic that Ventura voters will overturn the council’s approval of the project in a special election.

“I think come July or whenever they hold this election, people will stand behind this one,” said Eric Lambert, campaign manager for the pro-Measure S group, Citizens Against the Sales Tax Giveaway.

The group opposes a tax-sharing arrangement in which mall developers would pay $12.6 million in public improvements to be repaid by the city’s share of increased sales tax revenue. Over 20 years, the payback would total $32.3 million, including interest.

Measure S tried to scuttle that deal while prohibiting the city from promising rebates and other incentives to developers in the future.

“I don’t think that this vote is indicative of how people feel about the deal itself,” Lambert said. “I think people were confused.”

But city leaders said the defeat of Measure S is proof that Ventura voters want the aging Buenaventura Mall expanded and renovated.

“Our citizens have made a strong statement by endorsing the expansion of the mall,” Measures said.

Even if the referendum qualifies, she said, the outcome of Measure S is a strong indication that it would also be defeated. “This should be a real point of discouragement to the opposition,” she said.

Mall developer David A. Jones said his company is ready to begin construction once the final hurdles are cleared. In addition to the referendum, the project must overcome two lawsuits filed by the city of Oxnard.

Oxnard would lose two department stores, Sears and Robinsons-May, if the Buenaventura Mall expansion goes through. Oxnard officials say the move would result in the loss of $500,000 in sales tax revenue annually for the city.

“We have a few more battles to fight,” Jones said. “We are ready to build.”