Board to Begin Implementing SOAR Measure

Ventura County supervisors Tuesday voted to begin the yearlong process of strengthening greenbelt agreements between cities, establishing a farmland and open-space district and launching a countywide agriculture and land-use public education program.

Supervisors John Flynn and Frank Schillo were chosen to oversee these tasks, which are part of the recent voter-approved growth-control initiatives.

The pair will work with county staff and city officials to implement the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources measure. The landmark initiative prevents farmland and open space outside cities from being rezoned for development without voter approval.

“We need someone to work with all the people, and I’d suggest John Flynn and Frank Schillo since they did come forward and volunteer,” Supervisor Judy Mikels said. “They’ll be in charge with reporting back to the board on a regular basis.”

Flynn and Schillo will also help implement Measure A, a companion to SOAR. The advisory measure suggests passing ordinances that would prevent development on the six existing and five proposed greenbelts, which are described in the county General Plan.

Currently cities have informal agreements to prevent development in greenbelts, which are vast stretches of the county’s best farmland that separate cities.

Part of the SOAR measure also mandates a countywide program that would educate people on land use and the importance of agriculture.

Thomas Berg, director of the county’s Resource Management Agency, said the county will most likely seek grants and work with school districts or speakers groups to create the program.

Flynn and Schillo will also study the best way to establish an Agriculture Conservation and Open Space District, which would receive public and private funds to buy and preserve open space and farmland.

The two supervisors and county staff will study the possibility of a new property or sales tax, which would be used to purchase the land. By state law, any new tax for a specific purpose such as buying farmland must be approved by at least two-thirds of the voters.

The funding to purchase open space, however, could come from grants and donations, rather than a tax increase.

Previously, some supervisors had questioned the necessity of the open district, saying that sufficient open space and farmland will be protected under the SOAR initiatives.

Berg, who met with representatives of nine of the county’s 10 cities to collaborate on the measures, said city officials believed that their residents would not likely support a tax increase to buy open land.

But Schillo and Flynn argued that city officials were misreading voter sentiment and persuaded their colleagues to go forward with establishing the district.

Additionally, Flynn and Schillo will oversee the complementary SOAR measures approved by voters in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Oxnard and Moorpark.

Those initiatives, which vary widely from city to city, will be the most difficult to implement, officials said.

“It will take someone with the wisdom of Solomon to move on the sphere of influence issue,” Schillo said after the meeting, referring to Camarillo, Oxnard and Simi Valley, which passed measures that allow their cities to expand beyond their borders.

Those boundary lines are situated beyond city limits, and they encompass stretches of land that those cities may someday annex and develop.

The sphere lines legally can be changed only by the Local Agency Formation Commission. So while voters in those three cities approved the expansion, the action still must go before the state-mandated agency for approval.

The agency includes two supervisors, two city council members, two special district members and two residents from throughout the county. Flynn and Schillo will work with LAFCO members on that issue.