Farmland Initiative Draft to Be Presented

In a first attempt to solicit public opinion, former Ventura Mayor Richard Francis will present a draft of a countywide farmland preservation initiative to the county’s Agricultural Policy Working Group this morning.

“We’re going public with the draft,” said former Ventura City Councilman Steve Bennett, who coauthored a successful similar initiative with Francis in Ventura in 1995.”If people want to suggest things, now is the time.”

The county Board of Supervisors called together the 23-member group to look at how to best conserve farmland.

The group has been meeting for four months and has come up with a series of options to be presented across the county at town hall meetings beginning in January.

The Agricultural Policy Working Group will discuss the farmland protection issue at 7:30 a.m. in the multipurpose room on the third floor of the Administration Building at the Ventura County Government Center.

Bennett and Francis have been working to build on successes in Ventura and Thousand Oaks to take the so-called SOAR initiative countywide. SOAR stands for Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources.

If enough money can be raised, they hope to put it on the ballot in November. Bennett says the countywide initiative embraces the same concepts as the Ventura ordinance.

“We’re taking it up a notch,” Bennett said. “The pace is quickening. If we are going to go to the ballot this November, people need to weigh in pretty soon.”