Council Rejects Plan for Urban Boundary

A proposal by Councilwoman Linda Parks to create urban boundary limits around the city, thereby preventing urban sprawl, has fizzled out.

Council members on Tuesday discussed a lengthy report by city planners on Parks’ proposal, which concluded that drawing up such a boundary was not necessary due to the city’s much-ballyhooed ring of open space.

Councilman Andy Fox agreed, saying that it was clear from the report that the measure was redundant and that safeguards were already in place.

“You just need to look at the green around the city and it’s obvious: The city has had a vision,” Fox said, describing a detailed map prepared by city planners.

Parks agreed that the city report was very thorough, but said that her idea had been to create boundaries outside the city’s ring of open space and its planning area, or jurisdictional boundary. She asked the council to consider a policy declaring the area within a mile of the city’s jurisdiction a no-urbanization zone. “As we near build-out, we want to make sure we don’t grow outside the city and join with other cities,” Parks said.

But Mayor Judy Lazar said Parks was asking the council to do something it had no right to do. Lazar said that the city could talk with Camarillo and Ventura County officials about new greenbelt agreements to protect undeveloped lands, but had no power to make such decisions unilaterally.

“That wasn’t the intent when you brought this up, Mrs. Parks,” Lazar said. “These are areas outside our jurisdiction, . . . so if any development were to occur there, [plans] would not come to us.

“I would find it somewhat distasteful to have Simi Valley or the city of Camarillo tell us what we should do within a mile of our jurisdiction.”

Lazar said she would support going to other cities and asking them to voluntarily agree to such arrangements, but Parks opted instead to downscale her proposal to areas she considered within city jurisdiction.

The motion was rejected 3 to 2, with Lazar, Fox and Councilman Mike Markey voting it down.