City to Consider Annexation of Weldon Site

After years of watching a proposal for a Weldon Canyon landfill flourish, then die, then resurrect itself again, Ventura officials are considering ending the controversy by annexing the nearby gorge.

“One positive is it gives the city more control over whether we’re going to have the landfill,” said Councilman Steve Bennett, an avowed environmentalist who has long fought the landfill.

The 6,474-acre canyon lies 2 1/2 miles north of Ventura and five miles south of Ojai. The notion of placing a landfill there has loomed for the past decade, though it appeared to die last year when Waste Management Inc. withdrew its plan in the face of probable defeat before the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

A San Diego partnership, Taconic Resources, revived the idea with a petition drive this spring. Proponents collected enough signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot, but the measure was removed in August after a judge declared it illegal.

Now comes the proposal that Ventura annex the canyon, suggested by a consultant this week at a meeting of the council’s environment committee. The concept sparked the interest of two of the three council members on the committee, who asked city staff to research the concept and report back in December.

If the city seeks to lay claim to the canyon, the site’s future would be at the mercy of the Ventura City Council, which has consistently opposed the idea of a dump just a few miles out of town.

Despite their opposition to the dump, a majority of the council members say they are wary of taking such a momentous step. Because the canyon is a few miles outside the city boundaries, Ventura would also have to annex a slew of unincorporated homes and industrial sites in between, many of whose owners have opposed annexation in the past.

Indeed, Bob McClenny, who lives in the Valley Vista tract, which may be included in an annexation, said the threat of a nearby dump is not reason enough for him to want to be a part of the city.

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“I’d just as soon not, I think,” said McClenny, who has lived on Cypress Lane for 20 years. “I’d just as soon stay county because the taxes are cheaper.”

Even if property owners liked the idea, the cost of providing services to the new residents might far outweigh any added property tax revenue the city would receive, some council members said.

“That’s a very expensive proposition,” Councilman Jack Tingstrom said. “It would have to be looked at very hard.”

But landfill supporters and opponents alike said they could see why annexing Weldon Canyon would appeal to Ventura.

“If I were a member of the council in Ventura, I would probably favor it,” said Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, noting that the Bailard Landfill, which is just outside of Oxnard, has been a thorn in the city’s side for many years. “(Oxnard officials) were in favor of (the Weldon Canyon landfill) because . . . we felt that turnabout was fair play. But this (annexation) would get Ventura in control.”

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Ojai City Councilwoman Nina Shelley, a tenacious opponent of the landfill, hailed the annexation concept as a great proposal.

“It sort of came out of the blue, but I just think it’s a splendid idea,” she said.

Ventura will need the permission of the Local Agency Formation Commission--a state agency that deals with annexation issues--for each step of the annexation process.

Bob McKinney, a LAFCO board member and an Ojai city councilman, said the proposal caught his fancy. “Gee, that’s intriguing,” he said. “I’d like to pursue that.”

After determining whether the city can afford the annexation, Ventura would next need to apply to LAFCO to expand its sphere of influence to include Weldon Canyon. A sphere of influence is the land around a city that LAFCO has designated as a likely area for the city to expand. The canyon lies just outside the city’s current sphere of influence.

Only when all the land in question was included in the sphere could Ventura try to annex the property. And even then, officials warn, the city faces a host of environmental, political and legal complications.

“This is a very volatile issue,” Steve Chase, Ventura’s environmental affairs coordinator, told the council’s environment committee this week. “If there’s not a predisposition here to use policy issues to make land-use decisions, then let’s not go down that path now.”