Ventura Citizens for Hillside Preservation, a nonprofit, all-volunteer local organization, was founded in 2001 to promote preservation of hillside land, above the city limits, from large-scale residential development.
Our mission has been successful, to date, because of VCHP’s continuing public contact, its election campaign efforts and ongoing City Council support, culminating in the adoption of the plan in August 2005. However, all this work stands an excellent chance of being totally obstructed if Proposition 90 is approved Tuesday.
Please study your Voter Information Guide to understand the impact of Proposition 90 as it affects the areas of environmental protection and land-use planning. This proposed initiative constitutional amendment is extreme in these areas. We can learn from the impact of a similar ballot proposal that has already been enacted in Oregon in 2004 as Measure 37. It has weakened Oregon planning laws to the extent that some 2,100 claims have been filed by landowners, intending to develop approximately 143,000 acres. The landowners may demand that agencies either waive land use regulations or pay nearly $4 billion in compensation. In nearly all the 700 claims settled to date, agencies have waived the regulations to avoid enormous monetary settlements.
It is obvious that the environmental protection that communities such as Ventura have enjoyed to date because of mutual efforts by officials resolving together to achieve “quality of life� goals will be lost if Proposition 90 is approved.
Therefore, VCHP urges you to vote no on this proposition.
—Hugh Oliver, Ventura
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