Landowner Gets Right to Build 180 Houses

Despite the objections of planning commissioners and downtown merchants, the City Council has agreed to give a landowner in west Ventura the right to build 180 homes off Ventura Avenue.

The council’s decision Monday changes the city’s traditional course for residential development by shifting new housing tracts from east Ventura to the city’s west end.

And it essentially takes away 180 housing allocations specifically reserved for downtown housing projects and moves them to the Ventura Avenue area.

Housing allocations, which are granted every two years, give developers the right to build houses. A developer must still receive permits and approval for the project before construction can begin.

The council previously earmarked 900 allocations for the downtown area. Business owners have been anxious to guard those slots because housing is a key piece of the city’s redevelopment goals.

“We are a little nervous if you use the 900 units like an onion and peel them away to zero,” said Keith Burns, a bookstore owner who addressed the council Monday on behalf of the downtown merchants association.

“We want to make sure the 900 remains a solid number,” he said Tuesday. “Our concern is . . . if you borrow it, replace it.”

Members of the city’s Planning Commission told the council Monday that shifting some allocations to the Avenue would be a disincentive to developers they have tried to attract to downtown.

“I am very concerned about the leapfrogging I see taking place,” Commissioner Ted Temple said. “I’d just like to see the whole community and the council stay committed to downtown.”

But council members said they liked the 180-unit housing project proposed by the Neel Family Partnership. The subdivision would be built on a 20-acre lemon orchard at Ventura Avenue and Shoshone Street.

To sweeten the deal, the Neels have agreed to donate half an acre and $500,000 toward construction of a new Ventura Avenue library.

“We think it would make an integral part of the development,” Tom Neel told the council.

Council members said the development would provide new homes while easing school crowding in east Ventura. And, they argued, it would bring people at least close to the downtown business district.

“I think we have an opportunity before us,” Councilman Jim Friedman said before the vote. “I, too, am in favor of building somewhere other than the east side. . . . I truly believe that those [houses] would benefit downtown.”

The council voted unanimously to amend the city’s growth management plan to include a portion of the Ventura Avenue business district within the downtown project area, thus expanding the area entitled to allocations.

To ease critics’ concerns, council members also agreed that next year they would add 180 allocations to the expanded downtown project area, bumping the allocations to 1,080 instead of 900.

After the vote, Mayor Jack Tingstrom explained that the decision allows the Neels to move forward with their proposed development. It does not give them permission to begin construction.

“It starts the process,” he said. “They’ve got the allocations; they have to come back and bring it through” the approval process.

Earlier this year, the City Council agreed to postpone future allocations for one year as a result of school crowding and population estimates that exceeded set limits.

The council’s action Monday to amend the growth plan will allow the Neels to pursue their project without having to wait for the housing allocation process next year.