Santa Paula : ‘Sleepy Little Town’ Debates Development

The debate over whether to develop or preserve agricultural land in Ventura County has reached Santa Paula, which is deeply divided over a plan to turn citrus groves into a housing development.

Growth control elsewhere has pushed builders deeper into agricultural country in search of land, officials said last week. With growth pressure comes no-growth reaction.

Groups promoting strict limits to growth have been organized in Santa Paula, where development has gone almost unopposed for decades.

“Santa Paula never even talked about development six months ago,” lumberyard owner John Wisda said. “We were a sleepy little town.”

Santa Paulans were roused last year after Orange County developer Harry Tancredi persuaded civic leaders to look at expanding the city limits to encompass his proposed development on the west end of town.

Tancredi’s proposal is to build 126 tract houses on 30 of the 500 acres on the western edge of Santa Paula that are now taken up by citrus and avocado groves and sprawling ranch homes.

Those houses would be designed for higher-income buyers and range in price from $275,000 to $375,000.

But community opposition could thwart Tancredi’s plan, growth opponents say. One group, Citizens for Responsible Development, already has begun to campaign for tougher city development policies.

The group was formed to protest the development in January, when Santa Paula City Council members appeared willing to go forward with Tancredi’s proposal. The council has since put the development on hold until the city’s general plan is updated later this year.