Environmentalists, Farm Advocates Assail Proposed Homes, Theme Park

With opposition to a massive housing proposal spreading, environmentalists and farming advocates on Thursday night urged city officials to drop plans to build 3,165 homes and an agriculture theme park on 815 acres of prime cropland.

At a Planning Commission hearing called to discuss a recently completed environmental study on the so-called Southeast Plan, opponents continued their assault on the proposal.

They argued that the development, if built, would wipe out farmland at a time when Ventura County residents are demonstrating their support for agriculture.

“I think the Pacific Ag Expo is an absolute display of arrogance,” said Oxnard attorney Joe O’Neill about the planned theme park. “If the people continue to act like sheep, they’ll lose. The developers hope everyone remains silent.”

Speaking before the hearing, O’Neill said he has contacted Ventura City Councilman Steve Bennett and former Councilman Richard Francis to help build a slow-growth coalition in Oxnard. He said he hopes to get Oxnard officials to create development restrictions similar to those passed in Ventura.

The development did receive support from the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce, which said in a statement that “the environmental review has been thorough. . . . The developer deserves a decision.”

Planning commissioners were urged not to certify the environmental study until the city had a chance to respond to public concerns, as required by state law. With City Council members scheduled to conduct a wide-ranging hearing within the next few weeks on Oxnard’s future growth, planning staff recommended that the commission not take action.

The study states that mitigation measures can be found for most of the environmental concerns associated with the project. For example, traffic congestion can be resolved by extending and widening roads.

The one unavoidable impact, according to the report, is the loss of 815 acres of farmland in an unincorporated county area just outside the city’s southeast border.

Opponents of the plan called the loss of so much agricultural property unacceptable.

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Former Oxnard Councilman Jane Tolmach submitted a letter to the commission stating: “There are thousands of acres within the city’s sphere of influence and outside city limits that have not been developed. . . . Any action on this EIR is premature.”

In a separate letter, Camarillo city officials argued that the environmental study may have understated the amount of traffic congestion the development would cause on roads between the two cities.

And attorneys for the Ocean View School District wrote saying that building schools for children who would live in the development could be difficult because of limited state education money.

Since city officials unveiled the Southeast Plan this spring, numerous community groups and local officials have joined forces to defeat it.

The county’s Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee slammed the plan in June, saying it threatens the future of local farming.

Last month, the Ventura County Farm Bureau announced its opposition, suggesting that Oxnard concentrate on developing homes in vacant areas within city limits. And Oxnard Councilman Tom Holden has come out against it, saying the city already has enough developments underway to meet anticipated population growth.

Armando Lopez, president of the proposed Pacific Ag Expo, said before the meeting that he will continue to push to win approval for the 90-acre agriculture theme park, regardless of what the city decides to do about the remainder of the Southeast Plan.

Two development companies, Rice Avenue Associates and Channel Islands Associates, paid the city about $223,000 to draw up the Southeast Plan, according to Lopez.

Rice Avenue Associates is proposing the Pacific Ag Expo, which would have rides and pavilions to promote crops, along with a hotel and a convention center. Channel Islands Associates owns about 130 of the 815 acres that Oxnard would have to annex to enact the plan, Lopez said.

The Southeast Plan has been proposed by Oxnard officials for inclusion in the city’s General Plan, its blueprint for future growth.