City OKs $1.2-Million Proposal for Renewal

Santa Paula will spend $1.2 million to rehabilitate housing in the city, throwing a rival proposal to build new homes for low-income residents into doubt.

At a sometimes tense meeting that stretched late into the evening Monday, more than 200 people saw the City Council vote unanimously to use the money to identify and renovate blighted residential property.

A group called Better Living In Time had pitched the idea, pitting itself against the nonprofit Cabrillo Economic Development Corp. Cabrillo wanted to use about $285,000 of the same money to help finance a townhouse development.

Residents chose sides, and the dueling proposals became an emotional lightning rod in the community that many saw as exacerbating racial divisions between whites and Latinos.

“Emotions did run high and it’s too bad, because it got a little bit divisive and it didn’t need to be,” said Jim Garfield, a BLIT member and former chamber president. “But despite all that, the feeling in town this morning is positive.”

However, some people are surprised the council acted so quickly.

“I frankly thought the way the proposal was worded made it difficult for the council to vote on it,’ said Ellen Brokaw, a member of a group that formed recently to support Cabrillo’s idea. “They didn’t want to vote it down.”

Funding for BLIT’s proposal will come largely from money generated by the city’s redevelopment area.

Some money allocated for that purpose could be tapped for Cabrillo’s plan, but it isn’t sufficient. The council could decide to set aside more Redevelopment Agency money, although that’s considered unlikely because cash is needed for revamping the city’s downtown.

“Does [the council action] completely foreclose Cabrillo?” said City Manager Arnold Dowdy. “The answer to that is no, but it makes it much more difficult.”