Supervisor Fuels Somis Road Debate

Infuriating some Somis residents, Ventura County Supervisor Judy Mikels said Wednesday she wants to place an advisory measure on the November ballot to gauge countywide opinion on a local highway project opposed by neighboring homeowners.

The Caltrans project calls for realigning Donlon Road near the junction of California 118 and 34, where traffic often backs up during heavy commute times. Donlon would feed directly onto California 34 under the new plan.

The advisory measure would not bind the county or Caltrans to any plan and may simply help lay to rest the heated debate over improving the intersection, Mikels contends. She plans to bring a draft measure to the board for its consideration in August.

But Somis resident Barbara N. Kerkhoff said the proposed advisory vote was conceived to garner support for ultimately widening California 118, which many area residents oppose.

“This initiative is a slap in the face to the people of the Las Posas Valley and to Somis,” Kerkhoff said. “It’s a supervisor who is saying, ‘I don’t like what I have heard from you people.’ . . . She’s trying to do an end run around this community.”

The highway intersection, along with the entire California 118 corridor, has been at the center of an ongoing battle between Somis residents and transportation officials. Caltrans officials, citing safety and growth concerns, want to widen the roadway, but residents fear this would only invite more development and ruin the rural character of the Las Posas Valley.

A vocal contingent of Somis residents argues that Caltrans is doing construction projects piecemeal to avoid a comprehensive environmental impact report of the corridor from Moorpark to the Port of Hueneme.

“The scale and grandiose nature of this does not follow the law,” said Roseann Mikos, a Moorpark resident and member of the citizens transportation advisory committee. “They are trying to find a way to justify the project by skewing the data and asking a generic question that does not explain it very thoroughly at all.”

Former Moorpark Mayor Eloise Brown recently gathered a few hundred petition signatures from throughout the county and presented them to Mikels to show support for the advisory measure.

“My efforts were to stop the opposition,” she said. “We need to point out that Caltrans has the support of people who drive through there.”

A Ventura County Transportation Commission study in January found that 73% of county residents and 65% of Somis residents support intersection improvements.

Many Somis residents, however, dispute the finding, citing biased wording and vague questions.

“No one will argue with the fact that the intersection needs to be improved,” said Craig Underwood, a Somis resident who owns a produce stand near the intersection. “The overwhelming feeling is we don’t like the Caltrans proposal of how to improve it.”

Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the county Transportation Commission, said she stands behind the survey and Caltrans’ plan.

“I don’t think this [advisory measure] will tell us anything we don’t know,” she said. “No one is talking about putting in a freeway, we just need an intersection that functions properly.”

She said the ultimate decision on the intersection will not be made by supervisors or through a county vote, but by Caltrans.

“The issue comes down to safety. Caltrans will do what it needs to make it safe,” Gherardi said.

Mikels, whose district includes Somis, said an advisory measure is used in situations where county government wants to get a sense of how residents feel on a particular issue.

“It will be a fair, no-harm way to answer that question,” she said.