LAFCO Policy and Santa Paula
Re “Growing Pains: Critics Assail LAFCO Policy Change as Santa Paula Seeks to Expand,” Jan. 16.
Santa Paula’s growth plans would have a larger impact on county roads than the huge Newhall Ranch development. Yet the Local Agency Formation Commission director and the city of Santa Paula say that Newhall’s plans are bad but that Santa Paula’s plans are good.
If Santa Paula gets a go-ahead today, then the county should fold the tent and quit throwing money away litigating against Newhall.
Santa Paula officials claim they are directing development away from prime farmland. The included West Area 2 is all prime farmland. Each dollar of government revenue from farming costs 30 cents in government services. Light industrial costs more than 70 cents per dollar of revenue. A dollar from residential development generates the need to provide $1.15 worth of services. From a revenue standpoint, the highest and best use of prime irrigated cropland is growing food and fiber. That is why we have state laws to protect prime farmland.
My neighbor Chuy Gonzales, with his brothers Franco and Roberto, farm the incredibly fertile strip of Santa Clara Valley bottom land between the west side of Santa Paula and the Castaic junction in Los Angeles County. For most of the ‘90s, they have been the fourth-largest employer in Santa Paula, employing 400 workers with a payroll of more than $100,000 per week. The Gonzales brothers purchase more than $40,000 worth of fuel and supplies each month from Santa Paula merchants. They pack and ship cilantro, parsley, basil, mint, leeks, radishes and other high-value crops all over the nation. That is well over $5 million into Santa Paula each year. But that is coming to an end as a direct result of actions already taken by the City Council. The land speculators have moved in, making their deals with the city on one-time impact fees of a measly few thousand dollars. These new owners have no interest in farming and are not renewing the Gonzales’ leases to farm. The critical mass they need to sustain operations is diminished. A lot of folks will be losing their jobs, and local merchants will miss their business. I will also miss my hard-working, gentle neighbors.
KEN CHAPMAN
Santa Paula-Ventura
Greenbelt Lemon Grower
Santa Paula
*
Santa Paula Councilwoman Robin Sullivan, a real estate attorney whose Republican candidacy for state Assembly has recently been announced, is at risk of shooting herself in her own political foot.
As a Ventura County LAFCO commissioner, Sullivan’s stubborn insistence on voting in favor of her pet local project may be correct under the law, but that vote remains a conflict of interest by definition and would be considered such in other government and quasi-government offices.
Her willingness, as a public official, to openly take advantage of an apparent loophole for her own potential personal gain does not generate our trust and confidence. Further, it is simply naive of her to underestimate and disrespect the public’s ability to discern impropriety.
Voters in this Assembly district just might be watching how she holsters her gun.
JULIE TOVIAS
Santa Paula
*
Today LAFCO will hold a hearing on the addition of approximately 7,730 acres (Adams Canyon) to the city of Santa Paula.
I wish to express my opposition. This large piece of land is not contiguous to the city. For administrative, environmental and safety reasons, developing it would be a disaster. I would like to make a case on the basis of underground geological hazards.
I am an engineer who has worked for 40 years in the producing division of a major oil company, for many years as superintendent in Ventura County. The Adams Canyon area was an old producing field with all the wells now abandoned. There are approximately 120 abandoned well sites in the area. The state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources lists about 30 abandoned wells. There are about 30 more wells that go back to that agency’s predecessor, the California Bureau of Mines. This leaves 60 wells that predate any state jurisdiction.
The first well was a tunnel into the south flank of Sulphur Mountain, which was reputed to produce 60 barrels a day. It was dug by Leland Stanford in 1866. The oil in this field was fairly heavy, typical of the Monterey formation. The associated gas has a high hydrogen sulfide content. This is a highly poisonous gas, and if you travel Highway 150 between Santa Paula and Upper Ojai you can smell the rotten egg odor from seeps along the east flank of Sulphur Mountain.
The 60 wells abandoned before the era of regulation should be highly suspect as they were possibly candidates for “poor boy” abandonments. This could mean a fence post down the hole with gunny sacks and a few shovelfuls of dirt, then topped with an inverted five-gallon paint bucket. After heavy rains, oil is usually found in the Adams Canyon outwash to the river.
I believe extensive development in the canyon could produce a political situation similar to the Belmont Learning Complex fiasco in Los Angeles. To be told that “a study will be made” or that “it was talked about” is of little assurance. The previous LAFCO voted against Santa Paula annexing Adams Canyon because it was not logical, it was not orderly and it did not make sense. Nothing has changed to warrant changing this decision.
RICHARD F. VINCENT
Santa Paula
*
Re “LAFCO Should Say No,,” Ventura County editorial, Jan. 16.
Regarding the prospective Juan Soria school site, The Times states, “We concede Oxnard’s need to build more schools, and fast. But we believe that there are better sites closer to where the students are and farther from the potential drift of farm chemicals.”
Don’t keep us in suspense; tell us where.
SANDY KIRBY
Oxnard
