Activists Bolster Hillside Preservation Campaign

Supporters of a Ventura ballot measure that would restrict development of the city’s hillsides have raised nearly $13,000 to promote the initiative.

Slow-growth organizers received a good response to a May letter soliciting contributions for a fall campaign aimed at getting out the vote, said Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett, who is also a leader of the county’s growth-control movement--Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources, or SOAR.

Campaign finance filings by SOAR Inc. show it has received $12,945 since Jan. 1, mainly from Ventura residents making donations ranging from $100 to $500.

Bennett said the group wanted to make sure it had some cash to get out its message in the weeks before the Nov. 6 election.

If the initiative passes, a public vote would be required before water, sewer and other services could be extended to 9,100 hillside acres bordering the city. Ventura’s City Council placed it on the fall ballot in response to public outcry over plans to build as many as 1,900 homes.

Families who own the acreage have said they plan to remain neutral. Even so, SOAR plans to send out at least one mailer outlining reasons to support the measure, said Martha Zeiher, president of Citizens for Hillside Preservation.

Zeiher acknowledged that Ventura residents’ previous support of tough limits on growth--and the lack of any formal opposition--could mean the initiative will easily win approval.

But even if the measure is a slam-dunk, Zeiher said, a campaign promoting it will raise public awareness about the need to take the property permanently off the market.

“Our ultimate goal is to raise enough money to purchase the land and to preserve it as open space,” Zeiher said. “So this is raising our public profile for when we go back and ask people to donate money to purchase the property.”

A spokesman for the four family trusts that own most of the land could not be reached for comment.

Both sides agree that even if the measure passes, building could still take place. But that will happen only if a project gains the public’s support, said Ventura Mayor Sandy Smith.

“The property owners have said they will take at least a year to educate the public about the benefits of the project,” Smith said. “My personal position is I don’t agree with ballot-box planning. But unfortunately, in Ventura it is a reality.”

Seven of the county’s 10 cities have laws that require a public vote before construction can take place on undeveloped land. But Ventura’s law deals only with farmland and most of the hillside property is zoned as open space.