A New Chapter in County Eco-Politics

VENTURA —  Attempting to meld the disjointed efforts of local activists, a nonprofit Santa Barbara law firm plans to open a Ventura office Monday that would be the first permanently staffed agency for environmental advocacy in Ventura County.

Founded 20 years ago, the Environmental Defense Center is using a $100,000 donation from Ventura-based outdoor-clothing maker Patagonia Inc. to set up an office on Main Street.

“We will be a focal point for community activists to come together countywide,” said Marc Chytilo, chief EDC attorney.

The firm’s three-employee Ventura office intends to function not only as legal counsel to environmental organizations but as a clearinghouse that shares membership and contribution lists so community groups can organize more effective campaigns to save natural resources and wildlife and preserve farmlands and open space.

The office--a small, white California bungalow--will be staffed by attorney John Buse and two environmental planners, including Carla Bard of Ojai, a former State Water Quality Control Board chairwoman and part-time Patagonia employee for the last year and a half.

“We’re not imposing an agenda of what we think is right for Ventura County,” Chytilo said. “The community will indicate what it thinks the priorities are. But clearly land use, air quality and the loss of agricultural lands are among the most compelling issues Ventura County is facing.”

The EDC has long been a factor in Ventura County environmental politics--winning two key air-quality cases and successfully opposing construction of a Cal State university campus on Taylor Ranch in the 1980s; fighting new or expanded garbage dumps and a new county jail in the 1990s; and during the past year, helping to block an Ojai Valley flood-control project and a Navy target bombardment off the shores of Oxnard.

Indeed, the firm has its critics, especially in government. County Public Works Director Art Goulet, whose flood-control and jail projects were challenged by the organization, said: “I think that in many respects they attack projects solely to create a record so they can sue and get attorney fees and stay in business.”

The firm was recently tentatively awarded $17,000 from the county for its efforts in the flood-control case.

But supporters say the EDC’s arrival could prove a landmark in local environmental history.

The event will culminate months of planning by numerous local groups, whose representatives met three times in a Patagonia conference room to brainstorm about responding to old issues and an array of building projects that have surfaced as the economy has improved.

They decided to unify the efforts of perhaps two dozen groups in both ends of the county by bringing an Environmental Defense Center office to Ventura.

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Represented in the discussions were such groups as the Sierra Club, Keep the Sespe Wild, Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, the Environmental Coalition of Ventura County, Friends of the Ventura River, Friends of the Santa Clara River, the Ormond [Beach] Observers and Save Open Space, Bard said.

Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Linda Parks and Ventura Councilman Steve Bennett also attended, she said.

“Having one organization with a full-time environmental staff, that’s something we’ve never had here and that’s a real big deal,” said Kevin Sweeney, head of environmental planning for Patagonia.

“Now we can build from campaign to campaign, and that has been a failure in Ventura County in the past,” said Sweeney, point man for Patagonia’s push into local politics in the late 1980s. “After a campaign, those contributor lists would seem to evaporate. Now lists can be at a central clearinghouse so people can tap in.”

Chytilo said he expects the Environmental Defense Center to attack construction projects that threaten to pave over rich farmland, including a 25,000-home Newhall Land & Farming Co. project east of Piru in Los Angeles County. The firm may also fight the 3,200-home Messenger project that goes before the Moorpark City Council this year.

Overseeing about 100 cases at a time, the EDC is also urging the National Park Service to limit cattle and elk grazing on Santa Rosa Island and recently gained assurances from Mobil Oil Co. that it will remove two oil piers and cap several old wells in the Rincon area.

Chytilo said the EDC’s new emphasis on Ventura County is shown by the local office’s anticipated $200,000 annual budget, fully 40% of the firm’s total. Patagonia’s $100,000 grant gets the office started, and the company has pledged ongoing but diminishing support in the future, according to the EDC.

But Chytilo said the law firm’s long-term viability in Ventura will ride on how much support it gets from other local groups and corporations.

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If things work out, attorney Buse said the EDC will provide the same range of programs it does in Santa Barbara County, where it counsels community groups on how to solve disputes with government agencies out of court.

Recently, for example, the EDC assisted a local wilderness-protection group in a successful $1.5-million fund-raising campaign that led to the preservation of a 150-acre oceanfront ranch, he said.

Several environmentalists who have worked with the Environmental Defense Center said the law firm is coming to this county at the right time--after a period of retreat by environmentalists whose preservation arguments lost urgency because of the recession.

“It’s an idea whose time has come,” said Russ Baggerly, president of Citizens to Preserve the Ojai. “We are at sort of a crossroads in Ventura County. The pressure for development is enormous from the economic engines from the south. That is putting in jeopardy the farmlands and open spaces of this county.”