COUNTYWIDE : County Issue The Next Decade

The population of Ventura County has nearly doubled during the past two decades, growing from about 379,000 people in 1970 to 670,000 last year. Once primarily agricultural, much of the area is now urbanized. What changes do you see during the next decade, and how do you envision life here at the turn of the century?

Les H. Maland, Santa Paula city councilman for 23 years

I would say the future will mirror to a large extent what we see today. The area will still be extensively agricultural on the Oxnard Plain. I think we’ll see what we’re seeing now continue, and that is a slowdown in growth. I look for the growth of the state on the whole to slow down some, primarily because we’ll be able to get by with less military. I think there are enough smart people in the world to find ways to solve this current crisis other than war. A lot of our industry in California is or has been defense, so I see a slowdown of that. A lot of people who would like to be here won’t be able to afford it. I’ve noticed an out-migration, people retiring and leaving for Arizona, Oregon, even the Midwest, because they can buy a lesser-costing home in some other place and live on part of what they’ve made by selling here. I think that will continue. I’ve been in this county 54 years and I’ve seen the population grow from 60,000 people. What we have today certainly is not what I would have expected or even chosen back in 1937.

Dorill Wright, Port Hueneme city councilman for more than 20 years and former mayor

Without long-range planning, we will not be able to meet the demands for services and simultaneously manage our environmental resources, which have very definite limits. The water availability to Ventura County and the air-quality basin have limited carrying capacities. Significant growth must be managed consistent with those limitations and not dealt with on a first-developer-in-the- front-door kind of mode. My vision for Ventura County in the year 2000 is that we will have a fully operational four-year state college so that our young people of limited income are able to take full advantage of their educational opportunities. I envision a great many of our Ventura County small and mid-sized industries and businesses becoming more involved in international trade. I see more firm decisions being made to maintain the greenbelts and to encourage viable agriculture. And I think the county will play a role in meeting the needs of the tourist industry along the California coast, and I don’t see a need for significant numbers of additional hotel rooms. We’re overbuilt at the present time.

James D. Loebl, Ojai mayor pro-tem and councilman, serving on and off for 23 years

Recognizing that I’m no more able to predict the future than anybody else, I see probably more of the same for the county as a whole. I think there will still be pockets within the county that will more or less resist unbridled growth and other areas that will welcome it. I think jobs, water and traffic will be some of the major technical problems, but the bottom-line question will always be the quality of life. What are we giving up for what we’re getting? I guess some growth is inevitable, but are the branches of government--cities and the county and the state--equal to the task of maintaining the quality of life that has been here traditionally? That will be the real test. I think the growth pattern will continue. Ventura County is a very desirable place in which to live. The economics will determine the influx of people from the outside. The cost of housing and lack of jobs may ultimately catch up. On the other hand, the county is becoming more industrialized, which may mean more jobs.

John K. Flynn, Ventura County supervisor in his third term

It is true that we have gained considerable population in the last two decades. However, agriculture plays a major role in the county and will continue to do so. It is Ventura County’s No. 1 industry and will continue to be. During the next decade, I think we will see an increasing concern about environmental issues. I think the public will scrutinize every project that comes before a local decision-making body, and I think the county will not see as many changes this decade as we saw in the ‘70s and ‘80s. The reason I say that is that there is a growing concern about growth issues. Almost every survey taken about issues in Ventura County indicates the public is concerned about air quality, gridlock, urbanization, congestion, trash and water, and it will be this decade that we work to find answers to the problems created in the ‘70s and ‘80s. I think during this decade we will put emphasis on the young people like we’ve never done before. We will see this done in educational areas and in job stabilization. We must make sure that our young people have a place to work and to have a future.

John A. McWherter, Ventura city councilman, former mayor, in office for 18 years

Today we have far less population than there would have been had we continued with the tremendous growth of the early ‘60s. The growth from 1970 on was sort of a coasting. The reason is the city councils saw the fallacy of all that fast growth and started putting brakes on it. For the next 10 years, I think the increase of population will be a great deal less. Most of the cities have seen that growth is not the best thing because we’re exceeding our resources. This loss of growth is bound to affect the economy adversely, but at the same time it is certainly going to preserve the quality of life we’re accustomed to. Growth is a great revenue source but a deterioration of the quality of life if you don’t have the natural resources to support that growth. I do hope we have a nice airport in this county in the next 10 years. It would be a great tourist-getter for the city, and of course tourist money is really free money.