Officials Discuss Depoliticizing Permit Process for Housing Construction

VENTURA —  The city’s time-consuming, cumbersome method for issuing housing construction permits would benefit from more public input and less politics, residents and city officials said on the eve of the lifting of a year-old moratorium in the city.

The Planning Commission and the City Council held a spirited discussion on the issue Tuesday night. Although no formal action was taken, the council, Planning Commission, developers and citizens agreed something must be done.

Planning commissioners urged the council to use the permit process to lay out a clearer vision for Ventura, and to allow for more public input.

“Many members of the general public are finding out about projects very late in the game,” said Lynn Jacobs, a local builder who sits on the Planning Commission. She said there are two basic steps to the process--allocation of the permits and then approval of the development tract map. Early public participation is essential because by the time the tract map is approved--which is when most neighboring communities get involved--there is nothing the city or the citizens can do to stop a project.

“The allocation process needs to be more publicized,” she said. She suggested a more direct notification process to neighboring communities early in the game because it can often take as long as five years before a project is built.

Noting how political the process can become in a land-scarce, high-growth community like Ventura, several council members urged the Planning Commission to come up with a clear set of evaluation criteria that would depoliticize the process.

Councilman Steve Bennett recalled one case in which city staff ranked 17 possible housing projects, only to have the City Council choose a development that had not even been recommended by staff.

“There’s a limit to how much you can tie council’s hands,” he said. “But push on that.”

Planning Commissioner Sandy Smith responded: “We’ve sat up late at night trying to figure out ways to tie your hands.”

“There is little land, lots of projects, and lots of money,” Councilman Gary Tuttle said. “I urge you to tie our hands as much as possible.”

Developers and land consultants crowded a City Hall community meeting room to support the Planning Commission’s push for clearer criteria, and to push for an accelerated process.

Community Services Director Everett Millais told the council that some of the proposed criteria might require changes in city laws that would make it impossible to finish overhauling the process by the end of June or July, when the council usually votes on the next round of housing allocations.

On Feb. 3, the council will decide whether to raise the population cap for 2000, as laid out in the city’s blueprint for development. That population number forms the basis for how many housing allocations can be given out. The council will discuss the issue again in March, Millais said.