OXNARD : City Council Selects 5th Land-Use Adviser

Oxnard has tapped businessman Michael D. Clarke to be the city’s fifth land-use adviser.

The City Council appointed Clarke Tuesday in a 4-1 vote. Mayor Manuel Lopez voted for candidate Hugh M. O’Connell Jr.

Clarke will replace city of Oxnard Development Director Richard Maggio, who stepped down two weeks ago after the council passed an ordinance stating all five members of the land-use advisory panel should be members of the public.

The land-use panel replaced Oxnard’s Planning Commission in January. Panel members are volunteers and serve two-year terms.

“They consider major development projects . . . and they recommend policy to the City Council on land-use matters,” City Planner Matthew Winegar said.

Two weeks ago, the panel approved a proposal submitted by the Irvine-based Baldwin Co. to build 351 dwellings near Oxnard’s South Winds neighborhood. The project is set to go before the City Council for a vote Aug. 15.

If a land-use decision does not have to be considered by the City Council, the applicant can appeal within 15 days by filing a document and paying a $500 fee.

The council selected Clarke, a project manager for Sasco Electric Co., from a pool of 21 applicants who responded to ads in local newspapers and to postings in city government buildings.

According to City Clerk Daniel Martinez, one question on the application asked citizens to describe the kind of community they would like Oxnard to be by the year 2010. Other applicant qualifications included education, occupation, current activities and interests, Martinez said.

The new panel member will join advisers Dale Dean, Albert Duff, Sonny Okada and Ray Tafoya, whose terms all expire in February, 1997.