VENTURA : Mall Expansion Foes Expect Ballot Spot

Opponents of the Buenaventura Mall expansion say they have collected more than 13,000 signatures to qualify their initiative for the March ballot.

The initiative, which is being circulated by a group of local residents who call themselves Citizens Against the Sales Tax Giveaway, seeks to halt a proposed tax-sharing plan between the city and mall owners.

Although initiative backers announced that they have the signatures to place the initiative on the March, 1996, ballot, officials at the Ventura city clerk’s office said they had not received them by Wednesday afternoon.

Mall owners have proposed a $50-million expansion of the 30-year-old shopping center that includes adding two new anchor stores, a parking structure and a second level to the mall.

On Wednesday, architectural designs for the expanded shopping center were unveiled, giving shoppers and residents a peek at what the spruced-up center would look like after the proposed face lift.

Mall-expansion proponents have questioned the motivation behind the initiative drive, and the City Council recently authorized the city manager to conduct a study of how the initiative could affect their plans and who is behind it.

Proponents have suggested that the initiative is being backed by the owners of The Esplanade in Oxnard, a contention that initiative backers Lary Reid and Jere Robings say is partly true.

“The owners of The Esplanade shopping center have, quite naturally, learned of our efforts and have contributed financial support,” the backers wrote in a news release. “We do not apologize for taking that support.”

The initiative would halt a tax-sharing plan in which developers would pay for $20 million in street improvements and be paid back by the city’s share of sales-tax revenues over a 20-year period.

Initiative backers say the plan gives away public dollars, but city officials and mall developers have called the deal a risk-free investment for the city.