SOAR Buys Us Time

How will approval of the growth-limiting Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiatives reshape Ventura County?

Which of the dire predictions set forth by SOAR opponents will actually come true?

Only time will tell.

With expansion of city boundaries made more difficult, land within them will need to be used far more efficiently. Neglected neighborhoods will get new attention and, sooner or later, will attract more affluent residents willing and able to repair and replace. What will happen to earlier, poorer residents of these neighborhoods?

Only time will tell.

Wasteful habits such as spacious lawns, vacant lots, commercial strips with no upstairs apartments, and vast parking lots rather than stacked garages will rate a closer look. How will we respond to greater density in our neighborhoods and the need to leave the city to find significant green space?

Only time will tell.

Farming operations within the cities of Oxnard and Camarillo--like those in Ventura, which passed its own SOAR measure in 1995--are unlikely to survive. As they are replaced by buildings that, in a non-SOAR universe, would have gone elsewhere, some of the current conflicts between agriculture and adjacent schools and homes will vanish with them. Living in the city and farming in the countryside has always been sound planning policy; now it is the law. What will happen to the farmers and farm workers who depend on this surrounded acreage for their livelihood?

Only time will tell.

But time is exactly what voters bought when they resoundingly endorsed the SOAR measures. Unlike SOAR, which can be modified or repealed if it begins to backfire, development that paves over cropland and canyons is all but impossible to undo.

Slow down, voters said. Let’s get it right.

And so Ventura County has voted to live an experiment, to discover for itself the true costs of rejecting urban sprawl, to serve as a test case of whether the benefits outweigh whatever sacrifices lie ahead.

Those who profited from the old system will no doubt find ways to profit from the new one. Cities and counties all over the nation will be watching the result. Not tomorrow but soon enough, life in Ventura County will begin to change dramatically.

For better . . . or for worse?

Only time will tell.