Open-Space Initiative a SOAR Point for Board

Although it has been little more than a month since voters approved SOAR, Ventura County supervisors are already in disagreement over how best to implement the growth-control measure.

Supervisor Kathy Long has split with her colleagues John Flynn and Frank Schillo over their proposal to establish an implementation committee that they would lead.

Flynn and Schillo endorsed the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative--Measure B--which prevents politicians from rezoning farmland or open space without voter approval.

Schillo and Flynn’s committee would oversee implementation of the SOAR initiative, as well as Measure A, which, in part, seeks to start a special district to purchase farmland and open space.

Long plans to argue at the board’s meeting today that the Ventura Council of Governments--a 15-member panel that includes city and county representatives--is the appropriate body to handle the work.

“Frank and John are creating something already in place,” Long said. “We already have V-COG, whose members represent the whole region.”

Long said that the council would form a citizens task force, which would be mostly composed of members of the Agricultural Policy Working Group that includes farmers, environmentalists and business leaders.

Long founded the working group and proposed Measure A, which allows local leaders to adopt recommendations by the working group, whose members studied farmland preservation issues for more than a year.

In addition to establishing an Open Space Conservation District, the working group recommended the following:

* Establishing fixed growth boundaries around all 10 cities that only voters could change.

* Adopting by ordinance the six existing and five proposed greenbelts, which are described in the county General Plan, as boundaries that would permanently separate the cities and stop urban sprawl.

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But Long wound up voting against placing Measures A and B on the November ballot.

Long, whose district includes the agriculturally rich Santa Clara Valley, changed her mind about the advisory measure after Flynn and Schillo insisted it include a recommendation to establish the special district to purchase open space and farmland.

Flynn and Schillo said their committee would eventually include members of V-COG and the working group.

But initially only a handful of people would be involved--the two supervisors and county staff, Schillo said. Once the groundwork is completed on setting urban growth boundaries, more people would be invited to join, Schillo said.

“If we invited 50 people in the beginning it would bog down the process,” Schillo said. “A small committee would quickly identify a pathway. After that we would bring in more.”

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Flynn agreed that a small committee would be more efficient. He added that the implementation process for Measure A will be more complex than for SOAR, mainly because Measure A includes the suggestion to establish an open-space district.

“We don’t want to make it all that complicated or we won’t get anything done,” Flynn said. “We want this implemented in a speedy manner. I really don’t want this to turn into a fight.”