Sowing Seeds of Future

At the first of seven “town hall” meetings to discuss ways to preserve Ventura County’s farmlands, speakers eagerly debated part of the problem. The easy part.

Once boundaries are drawn to separate each city from surrounding greenbelts, who should hold the power to change them?

The people, cheered supporters of Save Open-Space and Agricultural Resources, or SOAR, the countywide ballot initiative that would require a public vote before almost any farmland could be rezoned for development.

Elected officials, countered those with more faith in the virtues of land-use planning and representative government.

That much will be decided in November, when voters say yea or nay to SOAR. But left largely undiscussed until the second forum, in Fillmore, were several tougher questions.

Several farmers noticed a greater concern with “saving the farms” than with saving the farmers.

“If the public won’t let us sell our land or use it for something else, how do you expect us to stay in business?” asked George Campbell, who said he already loses money on his orange crop as often as not. “Who wants to work for nothing, or go into the hole?”

What the public really wants, said citrus grower Bill Wilson, is open space. He proposed leaving wide swaths of trees along both sides of Highway 126 but allowing development behind them because Fillmore and Santa Paula need to attract industry if they are to survive, and they need someplace to put it.

“Farming doesn’t create good jobs, unless you’re the owner,” he told the crowd of 150. “Do you really want your kids to grow up to pick lemons?”

Several objected to the very idea of a law they see as ordering them to stay in business, win or lose.

“You ought to have control over your own destiny,” said Steve Smith, who farms in Santa Paula Canyon.

Discussions about two policies that could ease pressure to build on farmland--tax-sharing among cities and increased density in residential neighborhoods--brought favorable comments but ended with doubts that Ventura County has the political will to accept either one.

Concerns about water, labor, housing, inheritance taxes, over-regulation, neighbors’ complaints, growth boundaries, a tax increase to fund the purchase of farmers’ development rights . . . the discussion steamed on for hours.

What will come of all this? At best, some combination of new ideas and workable strategies that the counties to the south of us could never come up with. At the least, greater understanding of how complex the problem is.

In welcoming the 200 who attended the first forum, in Oxnard, Port Hueneme Mayor Jonathan Sharkey joked that his city has had urban growth boundaries since the day it was founded: “Oxnard gave them to us.”

Then he turned serious.

“We’re doing nothing less here than planning the future of this county for the next 30 years,” he said. It’s a challenge that demands everyone’s best ideas, and the courage to make the difficult decisions as well as the easy ones.

The remaining “town hall” meetings hosted by the Ventura County Agricultural Policy Working Group are: Tuesday, Moorpark City Hall; Wednesday, Ventura City Hall; Jan. 27, Camarillo City Hall; Jan. 29, Simi and Conejo Valley session at Reagan Library; Feb. 3, Ojai City Hall. All run from 6:45 to 9 p.m.