Subdivision Foes Get More Time, Signatures

Bolstered by a reprieve late last week, opponents of a proposed 2,250 home subdivision northwest of Santa Paula on Tuesday submitted 250 additional signatures for a November ballot measure aimed at stopping the project.

Santa Paula City Clerk Steven Salas agreed late Friday to let slow-growth activists continue gathering signatures over the long holiday weekend, said Josie Herrera, deputy city clerk.

Officials with Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources, who submitted the additional signatures, hope that will be enough to push them to the 1,074 needed to qualify the measure for the ballot.

Last week, they were short by 68 signatures. They collected triple that number over three days knowing that many of the signers’ names would be disqualified because they are not registered to vote, a SOAR spokesman said.

“We had an overwhelmingly positive response,” said Jim Procter, an attorney heading up the opposition group. “We posted people outside of shopping centers. I’m confident we will have enough to get this on the ballot.”

But a consultant for the developer is already raising questions about the fairness of Salas’ decision.

Tom Tomlin, a spokesman for Arizona-based Pinnacle Development Group, said a separate petition for a ballot measure put together by the developer was submitted by May 15, the initial deadline set by Salas to turn in signatures.

“I don’t understand what the reasoning is behind his decision to give them an extension,” Tomlin said.

Pinnacle’s initiative would amend the city’s growth boundaries to include 5,413 acres in Adams Canyon, where the developer wants to build a mini-city of upscale homes, schools, golf courses, hotels and shopping areas.

The competing SOAR initiative, however, would change the zoning for the canyon acreage where Pinnacle wants to build from “urban” to “agricultural,” effectively killing the project.

Santa Paula officials contend the confusion over the signature-gathering deadline began when county elections officials suggested that the city forward signatures for verification by May 15.

The city later discovered that Ventura was given until May 28 to turn in signatures for its own ballot initiatives and asked that Santa Paula’s deadline be extended to the same date, Herrera said.

But county officials say Santa Paula knew all along that May 28 was the final deadline, said Gene Browning, a county election administrator.

“It was explained to them several times that if they needed more time they could take that additional time,” Browning said.