SOAR Initiative Meeting Draws Only Critics

MOORPARK —  Billed as a discussion of whether the city should support a local growth-limits initiative, a meeting Thursday instead drew only participants who condemned the measure.

About 20 people--including city officials, farmers, business leaders, consultants and a developer--criticized the initiative during the nearly two-hour session.

The meeting was called by City Council members Chris Evans and Debbie Teasley to discuss Moorpark’s proposed Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative with open-space activists and other parties.

But on Thursday, initiative supporters accused Evans of deliberately scheduling the meeting for a time when authors of the measure, Richard Francis and Roseann Mikos, could not attend.

“We had made commitments . . . we told him all of that up front,” said Lori Rutter, who is gathering signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot.

Evans said initiative supporters could have sent someone else if the meeting was important to them. “If there’s so many people dying to support this and a groundswell of community support . . . there’s got to be one other person who should be able to explain this,” Evans said.

The initiative, which will be on the November ballot if backers gain enough signatures, would require voter approval for development outside city limits.

Opponents said the initiative would make the city look more like the San Fernando Valley--a place many residents came to Moorpark to escape--by effectively allowing construction of homes and businesses only within current city limits. Others said the initiative could result in higher home prices.

The initiate, said Moorpark land-use consultant John Newton, “is an insult to our city and council, current and past, and our land-use policy.”

Farmer David Schwabauer said it frustrated him that many residents believe the initiative would benefit growers. The measure, he said, has nothing to do with preserving agriculture as its title may imply. Instead, he said, it means loss of control over his own land and property devaluation.

Saying the public does not understand the measure, Newton and others suggested an information campaign to explain it.

After the meeting, Evans said he was disappointed that the Moorpark SOAR committee did not get the City Council involved in writing the initiative, as committees in other cities, including Simi Valley, have done.

The next meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Evans said. The site has not been determined.