Pay Dirt

To those who whiz past the Arundell Farm along the Ventura Freeway every morning, the 277-acre mixed vegetable field is probably just another patch of agricultural eye candy.

But to Larry Rose of the Ventura County Agricultural Land Trust, the farm is much more--it represents a critical backstop ensuring that the farmland between Oxnard and Ventura isn’t gobbled up by development and that the two cities never blend.

In its first major move since coming together in 1992, the trust is hoping to ensure the Arundell Farm remains a farm by purchasing development rights from the owners.

To that end, the organization has secured more than $1.1 million from the state and federal governments, as well as the California Coastal Conservancy, to purchase a conservation easement on the property. The latest monetary chunk came from the state’s Agricultural Land Stewardship Program, which Friday announced it would contribute $400,000.

“It’s the westernmost corner of the Ventura-Oxnard greenbelt, and it’s some of the most productive land anywhere in the world, three times a year for vegetables,” Rose said. “This would be our premier acquisition.”

But the owners, Ventura Alpha Corp., are looking to sell the Arundell Farm, which straddles the freeway east of Seaward Avenue and stretches to the corner of Olivas Park Drive and Harbor Boulevard across from Ventura Harbor.

And they have found a potential buyer, who would like to remain anonymous, Rose said.

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For the land trust to lock up the farm, it will have to convince the new owner to limit future use of the property by signing off on a conservation easement. Ken Pontifex, a Santa Barbara attorney and part-owner of Ventura Alpha Corp., could not be reached for comment Friday.

“This is the third grant that we have been awarded, and now we can seriously pursue negotiations for an easement,” Rose said. “It’s for sale, and we’re hoping the person who buys it keeps it in agriculture.”

As government agencies become more active in farmland preservation, deals to buy development rights from farm owners are becoming more common around the country.

Essentially, the approach involves paying farmers part of what they could make by selling to developers in exchange for a promise they will keep the land in agriculture.

And with the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources growth control measures on the fall ballot--as well as an alternative plan to lock up farmland by the Agricultural Policy Working Group--conservation easements are expected to gain popularity in Ventura County in coming years.

Several politicians, most notably county Supervisors John Flynn and Frank Schillo, are interested in developing a financial mechanism to buy development rights from farmers, possibly through a sales-tax increase.

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The Board of Supervisors is looking to gauge residents’ support for the idea with a measure on the fall ballot.

Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, said his organization supports the efforts of the land trust to protect cropland threatened by development pressures.

But he doesn’t consider the Arundell Farm to be one of the more endangered properties in the county, noting that it is outside the borders of Ventura, which passed a SOAR law in 1995.

“It’s one of the tools you can use, and we certainly don’t oppose it,” Laird said of the conservation easement strategy. “They [the land trust] can only do what they can with the money they have. The real question is, what role can the Ag Land Trust play in the future.

“The trust has been in business for a long, long time, and this would be their first real move,” Laird added. “I really question whether the property has development potential. I just wish the trust all the best, and I hope in the future they can find the funding mechanism to save properties that are more at risk than this one.”