Public Won’t Back Tax for Greenbelt District, Cities Say

Although voters overwhelming supported an advisory measure that proposed establishing a farmland and open-space district, city officials across the county believe there would be little public support for a new tax to pay for it, according to a report to be presented to the Board of Supervisors today.

Over the past three weeks, county officials have met with representatives of nine of the county’s 10 cities to collaborate on the recent voter-approved growth-control measures.

Port Hueneme was left out because it is surrounded by Oxnard and has little or no open space to preserve.

Voters last fall approved the countywide Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources measure that prevents farmland and open space outside cities from being rezoned for development without voter approval.

At the same time, voters in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo and Oxnard adopted complementary SOAR measures blocking development outside their borders. Last month, Moorpark voters approved a similar initiative.

Today, Thomas Berg, director of the county’s Resource Management Agency, will present to supervisors a report assessing the initiatives and Measure A, a companion advisory measure.

Measure A, which received nearly 69% of the vote, allows local leaders to adopt recommendations by the Agriculture Policy Working Group, a panel of farmers, environmentalists, building industry representatives and business leaders who examined farmland preservation issues for more than a year.

One of the group’s recommendations is to establish an open-space conservation district, which would receive public and private funds to buy and preserve open space and farmland.

According to the report, city officials said the public would not support a new property tax or sales tax, for example, because a sufficient amount of open space and farmland will be protected under the SOAR initiatives. By state law, any new tax for a specific purpose such as buying farmland must be approved by at least two-thirds of the voters.

In a 1997 poll by the University of California, about 60% of 404 registered voters said they would approve a $26-a-year parcel tax to protect farmland from development. At the same time, 50% said they would oppose any tax increase.

Supervisors Frank Schillo and John Flynn said they will ask their colleagues today to allow them to oversee implementation of the initiatives to ensure the open-space district is created.

Flynn and Schillo said they believe city officials are misreading voter sentiment.

“The people voted in favor of the advisory measure and the district was part of that measure,” Flynn said, adding that the funding to purchase open space could come from grants and donations, rather than a tax increase.

Supervisor Kathy Long, however, has asked that the Ventura Council of Governments--a 15-member panel that includes city and county representatives--oversee implementation of the measures.

In another area, city officials support strengthening greenbelt agreements between cities as well as creating new greenbelts, the report said. The greenbelts, which separate local cities, are vast stretches of the county’s best farmland.

Cities currently have informal agreements to prevent development in the greenbelt areas. The advisory measure suggests adopting by ordinance the six existing and five proposed greenbelts, which are described in the county General Plan.