Ventura Residents Closer to a Say on Hillsides

In a stormy meeting that lasted until after midnight, the Ventura City Council tentatively approved a measure allowing residents to vote on development of the rugged hillsides behind the city.

If the measure musters final City Council approval July 23, residents will be asked in November whether extension of water and sewer services to the 7,000-acre area should require voter approval.

Denial of those services would scuttle the possible construction of as many as 1,900 homes on the chaparral-dotted slopes and canyons that form the city’s backdrop. Approval could trigger an annexation that would increase the city’s area by about one-third.

The council’s vote for the ordinance was 5 to 0 early Tuesday, with two members absent. However, it came only after angry charges that the public had been deliberately excluded from the process to select the area’s boundaries.

Richard Francis, co-author of the SOAR growth-control ordinances in Ventura and other cities, contended that city officials had broken their vow of openness.

“I’ve been abused,” said Francis, a former Ventura mayor who is a consultant for a group called Citizens for Hillside Preservation. “I’ve been lied to.”

Francis said he was told that he and members of his group would participate in talks with city staff members to craft the ballot measure. However, he said, those talks did not take place.

“You’ve frozen out the very people you want to participate,” he told the council. “Now it’s, ‘Here you have it--take it or leave it.’ ”

Francis’ comments drew a sardonic rebuke from Mayor Sandy Smith, who said he had tried futilely to arrange meetings with Francis.

“Now I understand why council meetings were run so effectively when you were mayor,” he told Francis, an attorney who served in the post in 1990 and 1991.

The hillsides drew attention last fall, when four family trusts joined to propose developing land now used mainly for grazing and oil drilling. To minimize the risk of lawsuits from citizen groups opposed to development, the families, which own about 5,000 acres, have asked for a public vote on their plans.

At issue Monday night were the boundaries of the land to be covered by November’s ballot measure. City planners included the families’ 5,000 acres plus 2,000 acres that are also in the city’s planning area to the north. That area is not within the city limits but is seen in the city’s General Plan as likely for eventual residential development and annexation.

However, the proposed boundaries do not span all the hillside land at risk of being developed, Francis said.

In an interview Tuesday, he tempered his criticism of the city, saying he was more angered by being left out of the process than by its final result.

“They could have done better, but what they have is satisfactory,” he said. “I think I can convince the hillside group that it meets their specific needs.”

He said he favored an idea put forth at Monday night’s meeting by attorney Diane Underhill.

Under her concept, a public vote would be required to extend water and sewer services anywhere north of the city--not just in the 7,000-acre planning area.

City officials were unenthusiastic about the idea, contending that it interfered with issues to be addressed in an update of the city’s 12-year-old comprehensive plan and in upcoming greenbelt talks with Ojai.