VENTURA : Plan to Sell Lemon Orchard Proceeds

Dismissing the threat of a petition drive and the impact of their own development policies, the Ventura City Council has voted to forge ahead with a campaign to sell the city’s eastside lemon orchard.

Council members voted Monday to order an appraisal on the property and hire a consultant to write a request for development proposals, directed at prospective builders.

Because three council members have conflicts of interest on the issue and one councilman was out of town, only Mayor Tom Buford and Councilman Steve Bennett voted for the appraisal and the proposal requests. Councilman Jim Monahan opposed the motion.

City officials warned the council that their efforts could be hampered by a save-the-greenbelt petition, which could hold back any proposals for the site for at least 1 1/2 years. The city could also be restrained, officials warned, by the council’s development policy, which stipulates that no more housing allocations be awarded until 1996.

But Bennett and Buford disagreed with that assessment.

“It would be a mistake to say we would wait,” Bennett said. “We’re all walking around wondering what is this thing worth. I think we should all get a taste of that.”

Council members have said they will allow a developer to construct 400 houses on the parcel, if the developer donates land and seed money for a large eastside park.

But the lemon orchard is on land designated for agricultural use until 2010, and the petition could make it difficult for the city to develop that property and any other land within the agricultural greenbelt. The county’s election division is counting the number of signatures on the petition to see if it qualifies as an initiative for the November, 1995, ballot.

The initiative would give city voters the right to approve or disapprove development on any property designated as agricultural until the year 2010. To permit development on the orchard now, the council has to order an amendment of the city’s Comprehensive Plan.