Slow-Growth Momentum Cannot Be Ignored

On Nov. 7, Ventura County voters cast their ballots for slow growth. Everywhere that SOAR, the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative, has been on the ballot, either it has won or its leaders have been elected to office.

SOAR supporters Patti Walker and John Procter won seats in Fillmore and Santa Paula, respectively. In Santa Paula, residents joined together and on second try approved SOAR, protecting Adams Canyon. In Moorpark, SOAR leader Roseann Mikos and Keith Millhouse ousted two anti-SOAR incumbents. The landslide victories of SOAR director Steve Bennett for Ventura County Supervisor and the slow-growth, pro-SOAR ticket for Thousand Oaks City Council of Ed Masry and me cannot be ignored.

Citizens are taking an active role in how their cities are growing. Grass-roots campaigns have engaged and empowered citizens. An active citizenry generates greater scrutiny, and with greater scrutiny comes greater care by public officials in decisions that affect lives.

Although SOAR’s focus is on protecting open space, rural and agricultural lands, it is also a call for leaders to respect the general plans that set aside these lands for preservation in the first place. SOAR is a call for democracy to intervene when elected officials fail to stand up to big developers whose projects are more detrimental than beneficial.

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In defending just such a detrimental development, one former Thousand Oaks City Council member said, “The future will be good and environmental issues will be solved by our children.” This trash-the-future-for-developer-profits mentality is irresponsible and unacceptable. The old style of approving developments for short-term developer profits has to end. Responsible slow-growth planning makes good economic sense.

Elected leaders are aware of development concerns. After Masry and I won, a colleague on the council acknowledged that many residents have deep-seated concerns about traffic, congestion and development, and even admitted that the council had known all along.

With SOAR and a citizenry willing to vote out developer-backed politicians, elected leaders must do more than just feel our pain. They must act or lose their political seats. Environmental issues are not for our children to solve; they are for us to solve. We can’t sit idly by and let our air quality worsen, congestion on streets and crowding in schools increase, and essential government services lapse.

A proponent of Thousand Oaks’ failed $3-million proposal to build a golf course in the last great wetland in east Ventura County complained that once citizens stopped the environmentally damaging project, they’d want to effect more change. Well, hallelujah! Civic involvement in land-use decisions is critical, both to democracy and to good planning. That’s why the Southern California Assn. of Governments named SOAR author Richard Francis as its Citizen of the Year for 2000.

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With slow-growth leaders taking elected offices throughout the county and stronger controls to protect natural resources, we have an opportunity to combine and rechannel efforts countywide from growth to sustainability. We can look at rejuvenating downtowns, creating an effective transportation system, planning so that schools meet the demands of growth, enhancing neighborhoods and correcting bad development decisions.

Each city has its own unique character, and with SOAR-required buffers between the cities we can better keep those distinctions. On a local level, I will work to assure that the public is notified and can be a part of the development process. I will work to protect Broome Ranch and the ring of open space around Thousand Oaks. I will continue to help in the fight to preserve Ahmanson Ranch and keep it from becoming a city. I will help to find an acceptable alternative to a proposed dam in the Lang Ranch ancient oak grove.

It is time for elected officials to stop handing down problems and find lasting solutions for future generations.