Officials Address City’s Future Course

Newly seated City Council members crowded into a downtown restaurant with planning commissioners and planners Wednesday for a brainstorming session on Ventura’s future.

Participants said the meeting--sponsored by William Fulton, editor and publisher of an urban-planning newsletter--was unprecedented.

More than 75 people from the community--including lawyers, architects, city bureaucrats, neighborhood council leaders and residents--filled tables and overflowed into adjacent rooms.

Speakers stressed the need to revamp the city’s planning blueprint to encourage community participation in planning and to highlight differences in the character of each neighborhood.

“Ventura is at an exciting place, because we haven’t screwed it up yet,” said architect Nick Deitch, a member of the city’s design review committee. “This is the first meeting I have been to of this kind. It should be a regular thing.”