Santa Paula Clears Expansion Hurdle

After years of stalled efforts, Santa Paula got the green light Wednesday to proceed with plans to more than triple its size, which could trigger significant residential development in one of the last predominantly agricultural valleys of Ventura County.

In a 4-3 vote that parallels the deep divisions among residents of the city, the Local Agency Formation Commission effectively reversed a 1998 vote and approved the city’s request to expand its so-called sphere of influence to include Adams and Fagan canyons northwest of the city and small patches of land for commercial development east and west of town.

The approval does not automatically bring those areas, which total 7,737 acres, within the city limits, but instead defines the boundaries the city expects to grow into over the next two decades. The city must now apply to LAFCO to formally annex the land if it wants it developed.

Supporters say it will be years before ground is broken on the first new canyon home, and opponents promised to fight the vote through political campaigns and possibly lawsuits.

Still, Arnold Dahlberg, who owns most of Adams Canyon, said he is “ready to go” with plans to get annexation approved and sell his land to a developer.

Many critics said they were surprised by the vote, which followed weeks of heavy lobbying by opponents of the expansion.

One frustrated opponent told the commission to “go to hell” as he stormed from the meeting at the County Government Center attended by about 75 residents for and against the proposal.

Meanwhile, attorney Richard Francis, co-architect of slow-growth plans countywide, said he and community members would push to get a slow-growth measure on Santa Paula’s November ballot. Such a measure would give city voters the right to reject major development projects within city limits.

Similar efforts failed on the city’s ballot in 1998, but organizers believe that they stand a good chance the second time around.

Supporters of Santa Paula’s expansion say building as many as 3,600 high-end homes in Adams and Fagan canyons may be the only way to save the city’s lagging economy and turn around a budget that has trouble covering police protection and other basic services.

But critics contend that the city will spend more than it will make readying the area for development and that the annexation would forever change the rural feel and the racial and economic makeup of the compact, agricultural and mostly Latino city of 27,000, which sits on 4.5 square miles in north-central Ventura County.

After debate that turned nasty, with members accusing one another of election-year pandering, commissioners James Acosta, Judy Mikels, Jim Monahan and Robin Sullivan, a Santa Paula councilwoman, voted in support of the expansion.

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Jack Curtis, Kathy Long and Jay Scott opposed the expansion, saying they did not object to adding three patches of land but that Adams Canyon, the largest parcel, was too much of an unknown.

“It’s a request that’s very much not a consensus in the community,” said Long, the member of the county Board of Supervisors who represents Santa Paula and surrounding areas. “There’s too much at risk.”

Long said LAFCO has been accused of being a rubber stamp for annexation, whether or not it was a good idea.

“I will not be a rubber stamp,” she said.

As for city leaders looking to future residents to solve their financial woes, “you can’t build your way out of it,” Long added.

Mikels, a county supervisor running for the state Senate, said Santa Paula must grow in one direction or another. To reject canyon expansion would encourage development onto prime agricultural land, she argued.

Nearly all of the LAFCO commissioners said they need more proof that the cash-strapped city can guarantee roads, water and other basic needs to the expansion areas before they agree to annex the land into the city’s boundaries, which would allow the city to begin collecting taxes from residents in the canyon areas.

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Dahlberg, who owns most of the 5,413-acre Adams Canyon and has wanted for years to sell it off, predicted that he, a developer and the city could probably have such proof ready within a year.

Charles R. Lande, president of the Santa Monica-based Chadmar Group, declined to discuss specific commitments he has made to Dahlberg or the city, or to elaborate on his plans for the area, but he confirmed that he is working with Dahlberg.

The Chadmar Group has built high-end homes in San Diego, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties, and developed the land for a housing project in Simi Valley.

Norm Wilkinson, public works director in Santa Paula, said Lande had met informally with city officials in the past year but has put no formal proposal on the table.

Most of those attending Wednesday’s meeting were longtime supporters or opponents of the proposal. But there were some new faces in the crowd, including actor Larry Hagman, who for years has been fighting the federal government’s placement of a weather tower near his home in Ojai, just north of Santa Paula.

Hagman said he has not decided how involved to become in the Adams Canyon debate, but he generally thinks that Ventura County should grow as slowly as possible. He said he had just returned from a trip to the San Diego area and was dismayed at how congested Southern California has become.

“It’s all just one big city from L. A. to San Diego,” he said. “I’d hate to see them come up here and make the same mistakes.”

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Lande said his group won’t do anything without the community’s support.

“We’re going to end up with a win-win for everybody or it’s not going to happen at all,” he said.

John Stockdill, a Santa Paula resident who opposes the expansion, said he wasn’t going to change his mind.

“The fight has just begun,” he said. “I’m 76 years old and if it takes another 24 years, I’m sure I’ll make it to 100.”

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Santa Paula’s Expansion Plans If approved, the four proposed expansion areas totaling 7,737 acres could more than triple the city’s current acreage. Up to 3,600 homes and more than 4.4 million square feet of commercial space could be built.

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Source: Rincon Consultants Inc.