Los Arboles gets judge's go-ahead
By Jesse Phelps

Retired Superior Court Judge Melinda Johnson has handed down her ruling on the Los Arboles Housing development on South Montgomery Street.
The ruling states: "The court hereby dissolves all restraints on the Los Arboles project, and construction may proceed. A written decision with further explication will follow."

While the details, the why and the what-for, will follow, City Manager Dan Singer characterized the ruling as "allowing the city to authorize permits and allowing the project to move ahead. It looks like a victory for the developers."
While City Council members and developers might be smiling today, members of the environmental organizations that have fought the development are troubled.

Ivor Benci-Woodward, of the Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, said, "We're not happy with it but we don't know the details of it. It's clearly is a loss but not just to the CPO. The CPO's suit, from the beginning, was always based on defending the city's general plan. In order to approve the project as it is, the city has lost a lot of important environmental mileposts that have been established over the years.

"The growth management plan is no more. That had to be thrown out to manage the thing. The levels of traffic on the city streets, established in '87, have been over-ridden. The building separation in the downtown area now allows greater density of building because it's gone from 44 to 24 feet. All the CPO has been trying to do is make the city adhere to its own general plan. What the city has done is change the general plan to comply with the project. The developer and his influential friends in the city have changed the general plan."

Benci-Woodward said the CPO will wait for something a little more detailed before deciding on a course of action. "Sometimes the judges will let you know what you did wrong, if you did something wrong and that will help you develop a stronger position if you decide to appeal," he explained, adding that he believes Judge Johnson to be very detailed and accurate in her rulings.

Benci-Woodward finished with one last caveat. "I think that this decision, if the construction proceeds, facilitates a project that's going to change the city forever."

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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