Ojai Valley News Blog

Advisory group considers public’s input on areas to be protected

By Sondra Murphy
The Ojai Municipal Advisory Council continued its review of the Scenic Resources Protection Program May 18. Bruce Smith of the Ventura County Planning Division was again on hand with slides of the Ojai Valley and areas nominated by residents in March as areas to be considered for protection. 

“To break this into digestible chunks, tonight we’re going to be concentrate on mapping,” said OVMAC advisor Steve Offerman. Policy changes are to be discussed at the next meeting in June.

The OVMAC went through the mapped areas slide by slide in order to make sure they were familiar with the zones in question, especially in clarifying federal or private land from county areas the Ojai Area Plan has sway over. Chair Russ Baggerly led the meeting.

“It is absolutely essential there be equitable application throughout the process,” he said. The decisions they made as to which new areas they would recommend be added into the SRP were based largely on visibility from public roads and highways and include slopes from prominent ridge lines as the main focus of the remapping.

Agricultural land and slopes beyond the official boundaries or the OAP were determined by the council to be beyond their jurisdiction. Included in the new proposals are secondary ridgelines and hillsides leading up to prominent ridgelines already protected by the existing SRP language. Based on community suggestions received at a meeting in March, the county recommended slopes with a 25-percent grade or greater be assimilated into the update. Most of these are outside of Ojai city limits, but well within the vast jurisdiction of Ojai Valley Area Plan, which the OVMAC protects and defends.

With the consensus of new inclusions, the county will mail out notices to impacted property owners so they may attend subsequent meetings and voice their perspective on the proposals. The council members will also be considering whether to recommend any valley streets in the unincorporated valley be designated scenic. “You’re not bound by the same criteria as scenic highways,” said Smith. “You’re free to develop your own criteria.”

The scenic protection issues will not be heard in June by the OVMAC, but more likely in July, after the county has had time to update the SRP process and return to the council with final recommendations.

The next OVMAC meeting is July 20 at 7 p.m. in the Oak View Community Center, 18 Valley Road. For more information, contact Supervisor Steve Bennett’s office at 654-2703.