Oxnard OKs SOAR-Backed Initiative for Ballot

OXNARD —  After weeks of waffling, Oxnard officials have agreed to place a SOAR-backed initiative on the fall ballot that aims to limit development on farmland and open space beyond city boundaries.

But the council did not stop there. When Mayor Manuel Lopez was unsuccessful in getting the growth measure delayed yet again after weeks of wrangling, he persuaded the council to consider placing an alternative measure on the same November ballot.

Lopez insisted his measure would be even more restrictive on development, but supporters of Save Our Agricultural Resources and Open Space disagreed, saying competing measures would confuse voters and undermine both initiatives.

“The council is manipulating the concept in the hopes of weakening any efforts to really stop urban sprawl in Oxnard,” Steve Bennett, one of the SOAR initiative’s authors, said Wednesday. He added, however, “It will just increase people’s sense they will have to trust the citizens’ initiative instead of the council’s.”

The council unanimously voted to place an initiative on the November ballot that would set a so-called urban growth boundary around Oxnard, beyond which any development would require voter approval. Exempt are two housing developments already in the planning stages.

Under discussion for weeks, the initiative will replace another more restrictive measure that SOAR members had been advocating.

But moments before the council took its vote, Lopez attempted to add yet another version of the initiative to the ballot.

Lopez’s alternative would be the same as the SOAR-backed version, but with the addition of a permanent greenbelt between Ventura and Oxnard bounded by Gonzales Road and Harbor Boulevard.

Furthermore, Lopez wanted any such initiative only to become active if a county SOAR initiative is passed. Similar initiatives are planned in November for the unincorporated area of the county as well as in four other cities.

Lopez’s motion initially appeared to have the backing of a majority of the council, but the mayor withdrew it after City Atty. Gary Gillig raised legal objections about insufficient notice.

Many in the largely hostile audience characterized Lopez’s eleventh-hour effort as exemplifying the behavior of pro-development government officials that SOAR is attempting to quash.

“You’re losing faith with the people when you’re doing this,” scolded former Councilwoman Dorothy Maron after Lopez had suggested bringing both initiatives back to the council at yet another meeting. “If you’re not going to put it on tonight, how do we know you’re going to put it on at all?”

A rebuffed Lopez attempted to put a positive spin on his initiative.

“We should put something on the ballot, not necessarily because we support it, but to give residents a choice,” he said.

SOAR organizers maintain the veteran politician is deliberately trying to confuse voters.

“I do believe his motion was loaded with duplicity and his intent is to create a rivalry between two measures so that both will fail,” Oxnard resident John Sherwood said after the meeting. “I do not trust him.”

But Lopez insisted his initiative would give the city more control over any nearby development that might be proposed by the county.

“I want to have the voters of Oxnard have control over what I consider our sphere,” he said Wednesday, dismissing suggestions that he was trying to confuse the issue. “Why is it confusing to voters if we’re giving them a choice?. . . . I’m just trying to have the public discuss the best ways to preserve our greenbelts.”

Critics are unconvinced.

“I’m not sure what he was trying to accomplish,” said Councilman Tom Holden, who has championed simply placing the SOAR initiative before voters. “You can accomplish the same goal with these current boundaries.”

Lopez was wrong when he suggested his proposal would give the city an extra degree of protection from development, Bennett said.

“I really think that’s an argument used by people to head SOAR off,” Bennett said. “The reality is Oxnard is growing and the [county] Board of Supervisors wouldn’t approve a 3,000-home tract next to Oxnard if Oxnard didn’t want it.”

Lopez’s suggested initiative will be discussed at next week’s City Council meeting. It could be adopted at the meeting a week later.