Source of this article - Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2006
By Catherine Saillant, Times Staff Writer
Ventura County supervisors tightened development rules for 27,900 acres between
Ventura and Santa Paula on Tuesday as part of a countywide effort to stem urban
sprawl by creating greenbelts.
County and municipal leaders made a
handshake deal 40 years ago to preserve the fertile cropland and mountainous
terrain between the two cities. But the boundaries of that preserve had never
been clear, county officials said.
The ordinance that the Board of
Supervisors approved 4 to 0 not only specifies the acreage but is hard to undo,
said Deborah Millais, a county planning official.
The old agreement could
have been changed by a simple majority vote of the board, she said. To alter the
new greenbelt ordinance, four of the five supervisors would have to agree and
hold a public hearing, she told supervisors.
Supervisors said adoption of
the Ventura-Santa Paula greenbelt will help keep the citrus-rich Santa Clara
River Valley rural. In 2000, they adopted a companion greenbelt that preserves
72,000 acres of citrus and avocado fields and open land between Fillmore and the
Los Angeles County line.
"This says there is a strong commitment to our
greenbelts," said Supervisor Kathy Long, whose district includes much of the
latest land to be preserved.
Supervisor Judy Mikels, who represents Simi
Valley and Moorpark, was in Washington, D.C., on business and did not
vote.
The ordinance expands the territory covered on the Ventura-Santa
Paula greenbelt's northern and southern flanks, and adds a small slice of land
at Ventura's eastern boundary.
Supervisors rejected a property owner's
request that a portion of her family's land be excluded from the greenbelt.
Carol D'Egidio told supervisors that the family hoped to build commercial
properties on one of the seven acres they own at Wells and Telegraph
roads.
The property, just outside Ventura city limits, is close to other
commercial development, D'Egidio said.
But supervisors noted that the
greenbelt boundaries had already been approved by the cities of Ventura and
Santa Paula. They told D'Egidio that her family could still ask Ventura to annex
the one-acre property into the city and change the zoning to allow
building.
"We should respect this greenbelt process," Supervisor Steve
Bennett said. "I don't think that would send a healthy message that we wanted to
take [this one parcel] out of the greenbelt."
After the vote, D'Egidio
said her family had no choice but to work with the city on annexation.
Litigation would be too costly, she said.
"It's like inverse
condemnation," she said of the board's action. "They are really taking away our
ability to use it in any way."
The county board and other city and county
leaders have pushed over the last decade to strengthen existing greenbelt
agreements and to add new ones. Anti-sprawl proponents hope the efforts will one
day shield nearly 200,000 acres of county land from development.
Greenbelt protections go hand-in-hand with the SOAR growth-control laws
that require a public vote before development outside city boundaries can occur.
The goal is to confine new growth within city limits while preserving the swaths
of open space between cities.
