In Oxnard, It’s Back to the Land

What finally pushed Oxnard over the edge was the idea of paving another 800 acres of working farmland to build 3,000 more houses and--oh, the irony--an exposition center celebrating the glories of agriculture.

Suddenly, a variety of more-or-less routine proposals to plant houses on rich acreage that has long grown strawberries or celery were getting a closer look.

And now, Ventura County’s largest municipality seems to have caught the save-the-farms fever that has been sweeping the county for the past few years.

“The residents I’ve spoken with aren’t opposed to controlled growth,” says Councilman Tom Holden. “But the Southeast Plan shook their confidence that our General Plan alone could protect ag land.”

Rising public concern has fueled Oxnard’s campaign to emulate Ventura’s Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) law, and that in turn pressured the Oxnard City Council and Planning Commission to hold a special meeting last week to consider instituting urban growth boundaries.

The issue is whether future decisions to develop farmland will rest with the voters under SOAR or with politicians under urban growth boundaries.

Either way, drawing long-term lines around the city would help take development pressure off the farmland that surrounds Oxnard while redirecting it to unused or underused territory within the existing city.

Urban growth boundaries help take the “maybe” out of land values. Typically adopted for 20 or 30 years, the boundaries divide the land inside--approved for development and hence worth more--from land outside--off-limits, and hence of less interest to developers and land speculators.

The strategy has been used for years in Oregon and several Northern California cities.

For Oxnard to take the lead in exploring farmland preservation is a significant step. The Oxnard Plain has some of the most productive farmland in the world, yet the city has been one of the county’s most aggressive at putting that land to nonagricultural use.

We welcome this apparent change of heart, whatever its motivation, and encourage efforts to set up clear, firm mechanisms to steer new growth toward vacant or redevelopment-worthy sites within the city.