Santa Paula, Fillmore Must Be Informed About SOAR

The cities of Santa Paula and Fillmore are again being challenged by Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) initiatives. Petitions are being circulated in each city in an attempt to garner enough signatures to place the initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot.

On May 17, I stopped by the post office and walked past two women who were standing out front, approaching people as they were leaving. The women were asking the people if they were registered to vote and, if so, to sign their petition.

When they asked me to sign, I explained that I am the mayor of Santa Paula and that I am against SOAR.

I then asked the woman what town she and her friend were from, realizing that they weren’t from Santa Paula. The younger woman turned away and refused to answer my simple question. Her partner shouted out, “The United States Supreme Court said we can do this.” I think she was referring to the gathering of signatures.

This loud statement of Constitutional fact didn’t surprise me, considering that this was probably the first time these two women had been in Santa Paula.

What concerns me is that in our city, outsiders are trying to get something passed that won’t affect them, their children or their grandchildren. However, if SOAR passes, it will affect me, you, your children, my children, their children and their children.

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The citizens of Santa Paula and Fillmore need to be informed of exactly what will happen to our towns if we end up with a SOAR initiative.

I am against any type of initiative that would restrict positive growth, the rights of property owners and the future of our cities.

Yes, I agree that some cities in Ventura County have gone overboard with residential development. However, some towns do plan. I remember when Mission Oaks was all agricultural land. I also remember when Moorpark was a small, unique city, and I even remember Corriganville in Simi Valley.

However, I find it hard to understand how the backers of the SOAR initiative feel it will only help our community. If passed it would reduce our potential long-term growth, job enhancement and the quality of life for all. It would take away our potential for new commercial and light industry opportunities for the next 20 years.

Because our forefathers failed to plan for 2000 and beyond while they nurtured a cherished small-town atmosphere, we are finding it harder and harder to pay for the rising cost of running a city.

Our city has fallen so far behind other cities in Ventura County in pay and benefits that we may never be able to catch up!

It strikes me as ironic that a former Santa Paula mayor--who failed to have the foresight when it was needed years ago--and a current City Council member are two of the four names on the local SOAR initiative.

Anyone refusing to admit that Santa Paula is in the first stages of a slow death as a prosperous city has failed to view our city with open eyes and mind.

True old-time residents of Santa Paula can remember Cauch’s, the Toggery, Hack’s, House of Hutchins and Kaplan’s Shoes. What kept those businesses going? It was growth, jobs and the city’s residents. When the oil industry died and agriculture went to custom farming, our town stopped shining and started dying on the vine.

Have you thought about why Ventura, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Port Hueneme are able to afford strong police and fire contracts? It’s because their past council members, city managers and citizens had the foresight to dream, plan and prepare.

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Restricting Santa Paula and Fillmore residents with a SOAR initiative, is like saying, “The haves will always have, and the have-nots will never have.”

If SOAR passes, Santa Paula will not have better housing, better jobs, better schools or better opportunities. But we will always have poor housing, no jobs, high crime.

Best of all, we will always have strangers coming to Santa Paula to help the few locals who are trying to convince us all that we should just keep quiet, look stupid and trust that the outsiders, newcomers and the disenchanted who support this initiative really know what’s best for our future.