Ojai to Weigh Additional Anti-Sprawl Protection

Ojai city leaders are considering a greenbelt ordinance to further protect open space and farmland ringing the Ojai Valley.

Although those areas are already guarded by a strict anti-sprawl initiative, city officials say the ordinance would reassure residents that hillsides and citrus groves will remain off-limits to development.

“This is something we have been anticipating for some time,” Ojai Mayor David Bury said. “It is an important consideration.”

The ordinance is the latest growth-control proposal to pop up in Ventura County, where residents have passed a series of ballot measures in recent years aimed at curbing urban sprawl.

In 1998, voters overwhelmingly approved a countywide Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative that prevents farmland and open space outside cities from being rezoned for development without voter approval.

During the same election, voters in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo and Oxnard approved complementary SOAR measures to block development outside their borders. Moorpark and Santa Paula later adopted similar measures. Ventura had adopted one several years ago.

In Ojai, the city’s rural boundaries are protected by the countywide SOAR initiative.

But the measure expires in 2020, and city planners say a greenbelt ordinance would establish a long-term policy to keep development away from farmland and hillsides.

“It provides an added layer of protection,” Ojai City Manager Dan Singer said.

The greenbelt proposal has been in the works for several months.

As proposed, the greenbelt would cover farmland and open space from Lake Casitas east to Dennison Grade and from Los Padres National Forest south to the Sulphur Mountain ridgeline.

The existing communities of Ojai, Meiners Oaks, Miramonte, Oak View and Casitas Springs, as well as property zoned rural residential, would not be included.

Under the proposal, the Ojai City Council would review the ordinance every 10 years. Any changes would require public notification and a four-fifths vote of the council.

As part of the plan, the city would enter into a greenbelt agreement with the county, and possibly the city of Ventura, to preserve open space and farmland.

The council Tuesday will consider whether to direct its attorney to draft a greenbelt ordinance and schedule future hearings. A final vote would likely come this summer.

If the measure is approved, Ojai would become the second city council to adopt a greenbelt ordinance.

Last fall, the Fillmore council approved an ordinance to protect farmland in the Santa Clara Valley. Ventura city planners say they are looking into a similar provision.

On Friday, Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett, whose district covers the unincorporated area of the Ojai Valley, declined to comment on the city proposal without reviewing it first.

But he said he generally supports the concept of greenbelt ordinances because they direct development away from open space and agricultural areas.

Oxnard attorney Richard Francis, who wrote the SOAR initiative with Bennett, praised Ojai’s proposal, saying it would add another layer of protection to farmland and open space.

“It’s sort of like when you lock your door and have a dog at the same time,” Francis said. “The [development] pressures are so immense. The more protections there are, the safer we all are.”

Francis added: “Anyone can build in the county agriculture or open space area if they get a vote of the people. The greenbelt ordinance is a statement of policy that they shouldn’t try.”