Supervisor to Propose Land-Use Alternative

If Supervisor Kathy Long can persuade her colleagues today, Ventura County voters will have a second ballot measure related to the preservation of agricultural land before them when they go to the polls in November.

Critics immediately attacked her proposal as an effort to undercut what is expected to be another, more restrictive ballot measure--the initiative proposed by the high-profile group called Save Our Open Space and Agricultural Resources.

Still, Long proposes that the Board of Supervisors place an advisory vote on the fall ballot to gauge support for a freeze on expanding city boundaries until urban growth boundaries are created and formal greenbelts are established between communities.

Enacting such a moratorium until growth boundaries and greenbelts could be created were the two main recommendations of the Agricultural Policy Working Group, a 25-member panel that has labored for the past year to come up with strategies to preserve county farmland. The group is made up of farmers, businessmen, environmentalists, government officials and building industry representatives.

County voters are expected to cast ballots this fall on the SOAR measure that is aimed at slowing urban growth by requiring a majority of voters to approve any development of open space or agricultural land.

But Long sees her proposal as a “superior approach” to protecting agriculture that is “less simplistic” and “more accountable.”

“I’m trying to say we understand there is a desire by citizens to strengthen land-use [laws] in the county, and we now have a blueprint to do that,” she said Monday. “[The advisory vote] is going to say to the citizens: ‘Here’s the top recommendations from a year’s worth of work from the Agricultural Policy Working Group, and are we headed in the right path, yay or nay?’ ”

As written, Long’s proposed nonbinding advisory measure asks voters whether they would support prohibiting changes to the boundaries of their community until urban growth limits are developed. The measure would mandate that such growth limits not be changed with a vote of the people more than once a decade, Long said.

Moreover, voters will be asked whether six existing and five proposed greenbelts described in the county’s General Plan should be adopted by ordinance and whether uses incompatible with farming should be banned from those areas.

By contrast, the SOAR initiative, if approved by voters, would establish growth restrictions in the county--and separately in the cities of Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark and Santa Paula--for up to 30 years. SOAR has convinced the Oxnard City Council to place its initiative on the city ballot in November and is negotiating with Camarillo officials to adopt growth restrictions.

Long said her suggestion to put the issue on the ballot was motivated by a desire to prod county officials into taking some sort of action on the report issued by the working group that she was instrumental in founding. The board could take a variety of other unspecified actions that would satisfy her, she said.

“I just want a commitment made to do something [Tuesday] with this work,” Long said. “I will not let it sit on the shelf and collect dust. . . . My intention was to push the button by putting together a ballot measure.”

Supervisor Frank Schillo, a SOAR supporter, said he will vote in favor of placing Long’s measure on the ballot if it includes an amendment to ask voters whether they favor establishing an open-space conservation district. The district would be charged with finding ways to raise money to buy farmland or open space.

Schillo said he was surprised to hear that Long wanted such a ballot measure, but did not necessarily see Long’s proposal as an effort to compete with SOAR.

“I think SOAR has done an outstanding job to get across their point of view, and it’s going to be up to [the agriculture group] to get their point across,” he said, adding that he did not know whether a second ballot measure would confuse voters.

SOAR organizer Richard Francis said that is exactly Long’s goal. But he expects voters will figure out which is the stronger proposal to prevent urban sprawl.

“There’s a real reluctance to do anything substantive,” he said. “SOAR is substantive, so they had to figure out some way around it, so they designed the Agricultural Policy Working Group. The Ag Policy Working Group made some substantive suggestions. Now they have to figure out a way around that so they’re putting an advisory measure on the ballot. It’s real clear from my trek around the county that the voters want something substantive.”

Francis described Long’s proposed ballot measure as “odd” because the working group did not recommend putting its suggestions to an advisory vote. The group recommended the moratorium, urban growth boundaries and greenbelts be adopted either by initiative or legislative action.

Long said in April that she wanted the Board of Supervisors to enact the moratorium on expanding city limits rather than put the issue to a vote of the people.

Still, given Long’s attitude toward SOAR, organizer Steve Bennett said he wasn’t surprised by her move.

“This is part of a clear, consistent policy to try and head off SOAR,” he said. “We submit the petitions last week, they put a competing measure on the ballot. They’re going to tell you this is not a competing measure against SOAR. It’s very clear she’s trying to offer an alternative to SOAR.”