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SOAR (Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources)


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2018 Jun 1, 9:47am   2,439 views  8 comments

by MrBark   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

Curious what patnet thinks of this law that we have in Ventura County, as well every city in the county. It goes up for a vote every 20 years or so and always passes overwhelmingly in each city and at the county (unincorporated land) level. Basically states that any development on Ag land is required to go to a vote, which always get voted down, so no developer even bothers with that. The county is mostly agriculture, any new developments happen in remaining empty lots or by tearing down existing commercial buildings. It's kept prices very high and a lot of the area has people who have owned their homes since the 60's, 70's and 80's. Half of my neighbors bought their homes for $40-50k. The architect for the tract is my neighbor lol.

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a NIMBY in this case and believe in in-filling existing lots first instead of using Ag land, without this law, no doubt it would turn into a shithole like the San Fernando Valley and I wouldn't want to live here. Not that I'm a staunch supporter of some industrial ag, we grow fucking Sod (grass) here, in the middle of a goddamn drought. On the flip side, without new housing, the 800,000+ residents here lack a strong economy with high paying jobs, so people commute to LA county and traffic is becoming a major issue on the 101 which is the main artery and there is zero public transportation.

There is also a patch work of local roads that do no connect as originally intended, lots of dead ends into ag land where connectors would have gone, so traffic in some of the cities snake around existing streets leading to traffic, more air/noise pollution, longer travel times for emergency services – kind of feels like a half built city sometimes.

We also had the Thomas Fire destroy 500+ homes in the hills here and many people affected are just listing their ocean view lots for 500-800k because they were so under-insured for rebuilding on a hillside with all the engineering and permitting involved. This will also change the character of the city with a boat load of new $1-2M+ luxury homes being constructed up there.

http://www.soarvc.org

Comments 1 - 8 of 8        Search these comments

1   Heraclitusstudent   2018 Jun 1, 10:00am  

What we have now is simply people resisting change, any change, and at all costs.
If you don't want more surface assigned to residential housing, then at least allow denser / higher constructions. But no, they don't want that either.
Why can't we have a comprehensive vision of what we need, including more units, ag land we need, and nature preserves?
2   Ceffer   2018 Jun 1, 10:36am  

I hadn't been down there for decades, but drove through SB to get to Catalina Islands tour boats in Ventura. I always thought SB was supposed to be beautiful. The hills in the background were pretty, but the main body of SB seemed to be a mass of developer slash 'n scar crap built into dry, fragile hillocks, not pretty at all. Made me think of an upscale Tijuana.
3   SunnyvaleCA   2018 Jun 1, 11:17am  

Much of this fight over development would be a non-issue if only we had a stable (or slightly declining) US population.
4   Shaman   2018 Jun 1, 11:33am  

SunnyvaleCA says
Much of this fight over development would be a non-issue if only we had a stable (or slightly declining) US population.


We do, minus immigration. Non-immigrants are reproducing at 1.4 births per couple. That’s well below replacement, which is yet another problem!

I had three kids, smart and beautiful and motivated, so I’m doing my part for the nation’s future. They’ll need houses of their own someday. Hopefully we will have solved the NIMBY problem by then.
5   MrBark   2018 Jun 1, 12:13pm  

Ceffer says
I hadn't been down there for decades, but drove through SB to get to Catalina Islands tour boats in Ventura. I always thought SB was supposed to be beautiful. The hills in the background were pretty, but the main body of SB seemed to be a mass of developer slash 'n scar crap built into dry, fragile hillocks, not pretty at all. Made me think of an upscale Tijuana.


Don't think I've ever heard someone describe SB that way lol. Did you just drive through or get off the freeway? IMO, it's one of the most picturesque places in the country (hence the most expensive). It's like Southern France or Italy and an example of how to build a city correctly from architecture to public spaces. What happened in Montecito with the mudslides is unfortunate.
6   mell   2018 Jun 1, 12:18pm  

MrBark says
Ceffer says
I hadn't been down there for decades, but drove through SB to get to Catalina Islands tour boats in Ventura. I always thought SB was supposed to be beautiful. The hills in the background were pretty, but the main body of SB seemed to be a mass of developer slash 'n scar crap built into dry, fragile hillocks, not pretty at all. Made me think of an upscale Tijuana.


Don't think I've ever heard someone describe SB that way lol. Did you just drive through or get off the freeway? IMO, it's one of the most picturesque places in the country (hence the most expensive). It's like Southern France or Italy and an example of how to build a city correctly from architecture to public spaces. What happened in Montecito with the mudslides is unfortunate.


I think it's still a very pretty area overall. Have seen much worse than SB lol.
7   Patrick   2018 Jun 2, 9:06pm  

SOAR sounds like yet another way to prevent housing from being built, keeping prices too high.
8   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Jun 2, 9:58pm  

Open Space is a Con Game. It's to reserve highly valuable space for some future graft giveaway and limit residential and commercial construction.

If combined with a law allowing property owners to create dense spaces, it's fine. But that seldom happens.

It's usually rigging the market for SFH owners and market riggers.

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