No Time for Bystanders

After weeks of gamesmanship, various versions and counter-versions of the growth-limiting Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources measure have been placed on the November ballot in Ventura County and most of its cities.

Now the sure-to-be spirited campaign truly begins.

SOAR supporters speak passionately of their desire to stop urban sprawl, to corral future development inside existing cities and away from farmland, greenbelts and pristine hillsides.

Opponents are equally adamant about the county’s need for new housing as the population inevitably grows. They speak reverently of the rights of property owners and scoff at the audacity of relatively new arrivals who would presume to nail up a “no vacancy” sign for others who might like to move here too.

Elected officials are stepping carefully on this one, and for good reason. The measures have already drawn one legal challenge, a nit-picky one about wording on SOAR petitions. It is unlikely to be the last. Public money spent on legal fees cannot be spent on other needs.

On a more philosophical level, elected officials rightly view the SOAR campaign as a vote of no confidence in their ability to make good decisions about where and how Ventura County’s cities should grow. For residents concerned about their future quality of life, is it safer to place one’s faith in traditional electoral democracy or in the ballot-initiative system that has so reshaped California policymaking in the past 30 years?

On two points all Ventura County residents surely can agree: The issue is important, and it is nowhere near as simple as each side pretends.

There will be much loud talk in the four months ahead--catchy slogans, scary ads, outrageous claims that fall apart on closer look. All county residents owe it to themselves to go beyond that, to learn as much as they can about the likely effects of the various measures they will encounter on the November ballot--both SOAR and non-SOAR.

The decisions made this fall will shape life in Ventura County for generations, for better or worse. Nobody should leave those decisions for someone else to make.