Racing for Votes in Midtown Face-Lift

With one week to go before Ventura voters cast their vote on a $74-million midtown redevelopment plan, both sides of the issue are working to get their point across.

Opposing the Midtown Corridor Redevelopment Plan is Ventura CARES (Citizens Against Midtown Redevelopment Excesses), whose members are canvassing neighborhoods daily, posting signs at intersections and giving speeches anywhere they can.

“There’s like 60% to 70% of voters against redevelopment, based on the neighborhood canvassing,” Ventura CARES member Allen St. James said. “Some say, ‘I moved here from the Valley, and I don’t want the redevelopment sprawl. I like the town the way it is.’ ”

On the other side, the Chamber of Commerce-backed Yes on Measure A group is doing much of the same.

Chamber President Clark Owens called opponents’ references to urban sprawl and new taxes as extremist misinformation.

“We have our city boundaries, so I don’t know where they get urban sprawl from,” he said. “There’s not going to be any increased taxes, because of Prop. 13.”

Owens said the pro-Measure A group has spoken to about 25 nonprofit organizations, service clubs and mobile-home park groups, emphasizing that the plan does not call for invoking eminent domain, but is voluntary.

The City Council voted 5 to 1 for the redevelopment plan last November, with Councilman Jim Monahan dissenting and Councilman Ray Di Guilio abstaining because he owns property in the redevelopment district. Monahan has said the area doesn’t need the $74-million plan. Other council members say redevelopment is needed to revitalize the area.

Ventura CARES then collected enough signatures in January to force a referendum. The plan focuses on Main Street from Ash Street to Mills Road, Thompson Boulevard from Ash to Main, portions of Loma Vista and Telegraph roads, and the Buenaventura Mall.

The proposed street repairs, landscaping and improved utilities would be funded as redevelopment efforts typically are: As improvements increase property values, the city collects more in taxes on those properties.