City to Poll Residents on Aid to Farms

CAMARILLO — Asking homeowners for the first time whether they are willing to pay for farmland preservation, the City Council has decided to give residents a chance to vote on subsidizing water rates for local growers.

The Camarillo council voted Wednesday night to mail ballots to about 10,000 water service customers at the end of August, asking them if they are willing to pay 30 to 90 cents more on their monthly water bill to spare 18 farmers from rate hikes they claim could put them out of business.

Two-thirds of the customers who return the ballot would have to agree with the subsidy for it to pass. The ballots are due back at City Hall by Sept. 23.

If rejected, monthly water rates for the 18 farmers would increase from 83 cents per 100 cubic feet to $1.14. Some farmers said this 37% increase would force them to pay an additional $500 per acre each month.

“It’s six times the rate growers pay in the Oxnard Plain,” said Craig Underwood, who farms about 300 acres in and around Camarillo. His family grows vegetables on an additional 400 acres elsewhere in the county.

“Water rates are also very reasonable in Las Posas Valley and Santa Clara Valley,” he said. “It’s just the pockets of farming areas where there’s urbanization where the water rates are high.

“It just means that the ground within the city limits is not economical to farm and the pressure for development is higher.”

The city of Camarillo is one of seven agencies that provide water service to residents and businesses in town.

The council’s action comes at a time when slow-growth advocates are pushing to add a measure to the November ballot that would remove control over farmland development from politicians and give it to voters.

The Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative would prohibit the rezoning of farmland and open space in the county for the next 22 years unless it is approved by a majority of voters.

In a Times poll last fall, nearly two-thirds of county residents said they supported slowing growth in the county and limiting development. And about half of the registered voters queried said they would back a quarter-cent sales-tax increase to buy development rights from farmers.

Camarillo would be the first city to actually put its residents to the test to determine whether they would open their pocketbooks to support farming.

Although federal and state water subsidies are fairly common, giving a break to agricultural customers at the expense of residential customers is not.

“The city is interested in preserving viable agricultural land,” Camarillo City Manager Bill Little said. “Now, it’s up to the water customers to agree to do this.”

Just last year, ratepayers in the city voted for a modest increase in their monthly water rates to provide subsidies to low income senior citizen customers.

Some of the farms to be subsidized are just outside the city limits, but are served by the city water department.

“It’s not like they’re two or three miles from here,” Little said.

Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, said Camarillo was forging new ground in its support of local growers.

“We applaud the city of Camarillo in being leading in that regard,” he said. “They are making a genuine and sincere effort in helping people in agriculture. . . . It’s something the residents will have to decide.”

Steve Bennett, a leader of the SOAR effort throughout the county, agreed.

“I’m supportive of governments trying to keep agriculture,” he said, adding that if water customers reject the plan the city should consider providing subsidies from its sale-tax receipts.

Underwood said without the subsidy, farms in Camarillo may eventually begin to dwindle.

“It’s not as if this one action is suddenly going to make farmland disappear,” Underwood said. “It just affects [one] particular piece of property at a time. Eventually it makes more sense to sell the property.

“We’ll see if people value farmland or would they rather see it all developed.”