Among Ventura County’s top news stories of 1998, two will profoundly shape our future and could help provide answers to questions being asked all over the nation:

* Is there a way to control urban sprawl while continuing to provide housing, jobs and economic opportunity for a growing population?

* What is the most effective way for children from non-English-speaking homes to catch up in English class without falling behind in everything else?

Both of these issues sparked expensive, fiercely fought initiative campaigns and both will only grow in significance and influence in the years ahead. In each case, Ventura County will serve as a real-life laboratory with observers watching intently from far and wide.

The Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) initiative, passed by a large margin in November, transferred the power to approve many new developments from elected officials to the voting public. Related measures drew urban growth boundaries, beyond which most development is forbidden, around the cities of Camarillo, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks. Ventura passed a similar law in 1995; Moorpark will vote on its own version this month.

The land-use measures were billed as a way to “save the farms,” although most farmers opposed them. Now that they are the law, reality will begin to confirm or refute the claims of those who championed or fought them.

What sacrifices will be required in return for preserving the vast green spaces that separate our cities? How will our economy, our lifestyle, our political processes be affected?

It will take years for all the aftershocks of SOAR to play out. The best way to ensure that these measures work as intended is for the voting public to remain as passionately involved in matters of land-use policy as they were during the campaign. Having taken the power to direct development from the elected officials, the voters now have the federal funding should be available to take advantage of the natural laboratory.

In both of these issues, the events of 1998 will echo for many years–both in Ventura County and far beyond.



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