Home › News › County News
Growth topic of workshops
Group wants residents' input
Download this story as a podcast!
STORY TOOLS 
More from County NewsThe 1 million people expected to be in Ventura County by 2020 will have to live somewhere; making room for them without damaging the very things that make the county special will be part of two workshops this week.
The Ventura County Civic Alliance, an initiative of the Ventura County Community Foundation, will host meetings in Ventura on Wednesday and in Simi Valley on Thursday.
While not focusing on some set date in the future, Rebecca Evans, executive director of the Civic Alliance, said the group is trying to encourage a community discussion of how to accommodate the coming growth.
In a mapping session in June, residents were able to tweak different growth scenarios, Evans said.
No one seemed to want to tweak the existing city boundaries or encourage sprawl, Evans said.
There seems to be some consensus on preserving open space and agricultural lands, she said. But doing that could mean encouraging development within existing urban boundaries and allowing for increased density, taller buildings and more multifamily apartments or condominiums.
"I think for Ventura County part of the culture here appreciates what we have," Evans said. "We want a strong economy, housing and jobs, but most people who live here, live here because they appreciate the environment we have."
The workshops will allow for people to give input on not just housing and land use, but also traffic and energy use here. Those who come will hear the results of the June mapping workshop and be asked to fill out a survey for more input. The Civic Alliance hopes to use people's comments as part of a document that would be finished by the end of the year.
The whole process is modeled after similar community discussions and "consensus documents" that have been used to map out the long-term growth of a region.
The Ventura workshop is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 501 Poli St. The Simi Valley workshop is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Simi Valley Senior center, 3900 Avenida Simi.
(Requires free registration.)
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.