Residents in some Ventura County cities want a bigger voice on traffic congestion, building heights and views.

Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Ventura each have initiatives on the ballot or in the pipeline that could give voters more clout on those land-use issues.

Call them ballot-box planning or land-use initiatives, Ventura County is no stranger to efforts appealing directly to voters to shape growth and development.

The measures' supporters point to the value of direct democracy, while critics say they upend the tradition of representative government and can have unintended consequences.

"Ballot box planning is either part of your political culture or it's not part of the political culture," said Bill Fulton, president and CEO of Solimar Research Group, adding that the trend is often concentrated in coastal areas and the Bay Area, particularly Sonoma County. "Ventura, too, is just a county with a long history of ballot box planning."

Ventura County ranked seventh in a top 10 list of "ballot box hot spots," in a 2000 report by Solimar that looked at land-use ballot measures from 1986 to 2000. The county had 33 such measures during those years.

Simi Valley also ranked seventh out of 10 "hot spot" cities in the report. Simi Valley voters were asked to decided on nine measures during that period.

One of the best-known examples of ballot box planning in Ventura County is the Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources initiative, a 1998 measure requiring a vote before development occurs on open space and agricultural lands outside cities.

Fulton, who is Ventura's deputy mayor, said such efforts often spring up in the wake of real estate and construction booms that emerge after recessions.

"Ballot-box planning tends to ebb and flow with the economy," he said.

Fans of such measures say they put important decisions into the hands of the people instead of leaving them up to elected city councils.

"We feel that the public can be trusted to make a decision about the essential feature of a project," said Oxnard City Councilman Tim Flynn. "I agree that planners should be able to do the planning. But when planners are usurped by politicians, we need a safeguard."

Flynn is part of a group trying for a second time to qualify a traffic-related initiative for the November ballot in Oxnard. If it's approved, voters would be asked to give the OK to certain projects larger than 10,000 square feet or consisting of more than five homes unless all intersections within a five-mile radius have operated at C level of service or better during the previous year.

Traffic congestion is rated with letter grades from A to F. Projects that do not meet the C level would require a vote of the people for approval in an election paid for by the developer.

In Ventura, Camille Harris is chair of the advisory council of Ventura Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, which has a measure slated for the November 2009 ballot. It asks residents whether a moratorium should be put in place to limit building heights to 26 feet for up to two years while a board hammers out a general plan amendment creating view protections and it is approved by the voters.

"We realized that we weren't being heard and the people who were in office were disconnected from community sentiment," Harris said. "When that happens, thank heaven, we have the initiative process. Thank heaven for democracy."

Bill Burratto, president and chief executive officer of the Ventura County Economic Development Association, voiced concern about the effects of such initiatives.

VCEDA's board of directors voted in March to oppose Measure B, a land-use and traffic measure on the ballot Tuesday in Thousand Oaks.

Measure B would require a vote of the people for large projects that would add significant traffic congestion to any street or intersection, without considering street improvements that are provided by the developer or the city.

"These sorts of measures have, in many cases, unintended consequences to an area," Burratto said. "In Ventura County, it has implications. Obviously all of the economies in Ventura County are interrelated. In many ways what happens in Thousand Oaks has an impact on the rest of the county and further."

Measure B supporters say voters should be trusted to make sound decisions. They also predict Measure B wouldn't produce a negative economic effect by scaring off development.

And while the proposal seeks to change land-use decision making, it is also rooted in competition. The pro-Measure B campaign has been virtually entirely funded by the Do it Center, a nine-store home improvement chain owned by Jess Ruf.

Measure B petitions started circulating after residents complained about the quality of a traffic study for a proposed Home Depot store. In response, Home Depot has primarily funded the campaign against the measure.

"I'm frankly surprised businesses don't do it more," Fulton said. "It's a good way to kill competition. It's increased the decibel level of the rhetoric. I don't think the rhetoric would be quite as shrill if the pro side didn't have Do it Center money."

Ruf has helped fund ballot-box-planning campaigns in other cities when faced with the threat of a large competitor.

One of those initiative's was Measure H in Agoura Hills, which was approved by voters in 2002. The campaign supporting the measure was funded by the Do it Center and two other businesses.

The initiative limits individual retail stores to 60,000 square feet. Proponents said the measure would preserve Agoura Hills' small-town charm by preventing big-box stores.

The measure was put forward in response to a proposed 255,000-square-foot retail complex with a 139,000-square-foot Home Depot store.

Howard Littman was one of the residents who campaigned in favor of the measure. Six years later, Littman said, it appeared the measure worked.

"At least for the moment it appears to be" working, he said. "I am not personally aware of any negative consequences for the city, in terms of best planning practices, nor has anyone expressed any to me."

Littman said people could only project what might have occurred if the initiative had not passed.

Agoura Hills Councilman Denis Weber said the city has lost out on several national retail businesses. The revenues would have been a boon for the city's economy, he said.

"I still believe land-use issues need to be done by the electeds, not by initiative," Weber said, adding that the city government also lost potential revenue.