Initiative Arguments, Pro and Con

Why, in all the rhetoric about SOAR, has there been so little discussion about city urban restriction boundaries (CURBs)? Let’s compare myth and reality:

Myth: Implement CURBs and all future development will be into the city limits, limiting “sprawl.”

Reality: With CURBS, apartments and condos are forced into single-family neighborhoods resulting in congestion, crowded schools and increased traffic. Cost of housing is the only thing that soars and there is an end to affordability for the middle-class family.

Myth: Implement CURBs and the lemon grove near my house in Camarillo or Oxnard will be saved.

Reality: City CURBS will accelerate pressure to develop farmland inside them. SOAR is willing to sacrifice the very best farmland on the Oxnard Plain--more than 7,000 acres of irrigated ag land.

Do we really need to be burdened for the next 20 years with bad legislation or can we continue to work with the open, inclusive process that has been established by the Ag Policy Working Group?

Vote no on Measure B.

PENNY M. BOHANNON, Port Hueneme

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Some say that SOAR violates the rights of farmers and developers. It’s time for everyone to realize the truth: If a developer buys a farm, the only right he has purchased is the right to own a farm.

GEORGE MORGAN, Oxnard

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Contrary to the message of SOAR proponents, Ventura County is not being besieged by urban sprawl, nor will it be if SOAR is defeated. What we will have is the continued orderly growth in the appropriate traffic corridors that is vital for the economic well-being of the county. Urban sprawl, defined as cities running into each other with no buffer zones between them, does not exist in Ventura County.

What does exist is viable commercial development along the freeway corridors, which is good urban planning. Anyone who thinks urban sprawl exists should drive from Oxnard to Camarillo along Fifth Street. Open agricultural space is alive and well in Ventura County.

In addition to fear, SOAR proponents have mastered the art of divisiveness. By vilifying and demonizing the farmer as some sort of money-grabbing developer, they have turned a certain portion of the community against those who provide for our most basic need.

When voting on Tuesday, ask yourself if you are voting based on fear or facts.

KENNETH SCHMITZ, Ventura

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Ventura County is so special, and I fear for it. Just last week, I read of Santa Paula and Moorpark applying to annex open space beyond their boundaries. I do not wish to see cities spreading like this.

I hope that Measure B and C, K, M, O and P in the various cities will pass. That would send the developers, who are contributing big money to defeat these measures, the message that we will not allow our county to become another San Fernando Valley.

Passing these propositions now would buy us time for new ideas to be discussed and researched while still protecting our land from all the annexing now.

I will vote yes, and I will be able to look my children in the eye and say, “I did my best to prevent urban sprawl.”

RON MEANS, Camarillo

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One of the more subtle points of Measure B (SOAR) is that it would allow local planning to be decided by the entire county.

Why wouldn’t residents of Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks vote a regional dump out of their backyard and into ours? It has to go somewhere. With our current landfills reaching capacity, it seems all too likely that government would site its undesirable land uses in communities with the least amount of votes--like Weldon Canyon.

Measure B would allow politicians the easy way out. Instead of making tough decisions, controversial issues would be passed on to the voters in the name of “democracy.” And guess what: The community with the most votes wins. Is this any way to plan? It certainly won’t protect resources.

Please vote no on Measure B--there’s far too much at stake.

RICK WHITE, Ventura

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On behalf of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), I would like to correct a mischaracterization of our position regarding SOAR. An ad placed by Farmers for Responsible Land Use accurately lists the EDC as a member of the county Agriculture Policy Working Group (APWG), which assisted in the development of Measure A. The ad misleadingly implies, however, that members of the APWG are opposed to measure B.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

EDC staff members work hard to protect our natural environment and combat urban sprawl. Both measures A and B strive to limit this environmentally unsound form of development. While Measure A is definitely a positive step, it is only advisory and carries no force of law. Measure B goes further to protect open space and agricultural land located outside General Plan boundaries.

If passed, Measure B would not only protect agricultural land from sprawl development but would also preserve open space necessary to protect habitat critical for the survival of countless animal and plant species. Large expanses of vegetated open space provide oxygen and filter pollutants from our air. Natural open space land also provides area for surface water collection, ground water recharge and and filtering of contaminants from storm runoff.

Our concern is about preserving the necessities critical to our long-term survival and not about “saving pretty views,” as others have characterized it. EDC urges a yes vote on Measure B.

KIM UHLICH, Environmental Analyst, Environmental Defense Center, Ventura

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In your Sept. 24 edition I read that the people of Camarillo voted to increase the cost of water to the agriculture community. This is a perfect example of everyone wanting to be “farming-friendly” but not willing to give their support.

The people of Camarillo want to enjoy the scenery but when it came to dollars and cents they voted to let the farm community pick up the tab.

And what will happen when these farmers, who are renters, can no longer profitably farm these green fields because of the water costs? They will move to a more affordable area.

How is SOAR going to help me with this? It isn’t. These same people who have been billing SOAR as an initiative to “save agriculture” are not helping farmers at all but are placing the farming community in a financially critical position.

My family has been farming in Ventura County since the 1870s. That doesn’t allow us any special privileges, nor should being landowners penalize us, as SOAR would do. Vote no on Measure B.

MARY McGRATH, Ventura