4: Strawberry Fields Forever

Just like that, the waffling stopped and everybody drew a line in the fertile topsoil: The consensus is now that Ventura County must save its rich farmland.

An array of longtime rivals on growth issues--environmentalists, builders, farmers and bureaucrats--all agree on that.

Ironically, farmers were the last to fall in line.

They had balked at efforts to declare their lands off-limits for development, seeing such protection as encroachment on their property rights.

But in April, the county Farm Bureau endorsed the strengthening of so-called greenbelt agreements that declare vast stretches of the county’s best farmland off-limits.

That clear, precise statement was but one current in the winds that made farmland preservation the most important local political issue of 1997--and probably of 1998.

Across the county, communities this year will consider ballot measures to take control of farmland away from elected officials and give it to voters instead.

Taking another tack, a broad-based task force this spring expects to recommend another option--a tough new set of regulations that spare cropland while respecting the rights of property owners.

“A fundamental core value of the citizens of Ventura County is to preserve this semi-rural feeling and the buffers between the cities,” said Steve Bennett, co-chairman of the push to protect farmland via ballot initiative.