Sales Tax Data

I thought you all might want to see this. We're actually doing better on sales tax per capita than Santa Paula and Moorpark. Santa Paula has a Kmart and Moorpark has a lot of retail.

2005 Per Capita Sales Tax Revenue

The City's(Santa Paula) sales tax data consultant, The Hdl Companies, recently
produced a report on the per capita sales tax ranking of the cities and
unincorporated portions of counties in California for 2005. Of the 535
agencies listed, Vernon was number 1 at $47,798 per capita. Beverly
Hills was $656. Here are how the 10 cities of Ventura County rank:

101 Ventura $241
112 Thousand Oaks $234
160 Camarillo $189
250 Simi Valley $142
264 Oxnard $137
274 Ojai $132
355 Fillmore $ 92
379 Moorpark $ 80
409 Santa Paula $ 69
487 Port Hueneme $ 40

Citizen Feedback...

We recently conducted a random, anonymous mail-in poll in Fillmore. For those who responded - thank you. We had a very high response rate! We want to know what your concerns are. During the next several weeks we will be sharing some of these citizen comments for discussion.

We have not compiled the comments yet in rank order, but when we do will let you know what the most important issues are for the citizens.

What sticks out so far is that residents are starved for communication and an opportunity to be heard. Please feel free to comment on this board or call Gayle Washburn 524-7313 or Patti Walker at 524-2731 to let us know what is on your mind.

Here is a #1 priority for one citizen and their comment; "Job Opportunities: we need industrial jobs...something to keep workers in town!! Do you believe people moving in to town will shop here? Why should they when they work out of town!"

I agree with this writer. Fillmore has the highest commuter rate of any city in Ventura County. We are what they call "housing rich". We have a much higher housing ratio than job ratio. We are the bedroom community for other cities in Ventura County as well as Los Angeles County.

The City is currently planning the Southwest Business Park. I hope it doesn't turn out like Santa Paula's business park which has been struggling for years. We have a decent work force in Fillmore although I would like to see a more higher educated workforce. There have been attempts made to bring Ventura College to Santa Paula/Fillmore.

We hear that the price of housing keeps out high tech, clean businesses but it didn't keep them out of the Bay area.

More facts...

It seems some of the city council and staff members are working to upset the community regarding the Referendum.

I hope the following will help everyone understand what’s happening with the process.

The General Plan Land Use Element for the North Fillmore Area changed the use of the land from 76 acres of low-density residential and 23 acres of industrial/commercial mix to ALL 99 acres being low-density residential development, which is now the base zoning for the North Fillmore Area.

The city has an Overlay District for the North Fillmore Area which says that if they council wants, they can approve an Ordinance which would allow up to 894 homes in that area and that the development would be governed by a master plan. So, on July 11 that’s what the council did. They approved an ordinance okaying a master plan that would not allow more than 700 homes to be built.

What the Referendum did was to nullify that ordinance.

On September 12 the council will need to decide if they want to accept the Referendum and revert back to the base zoning of ALL 99 acres being low-density for the North Fillmore Area or do they want to hold a special election to see if you want them to go forward with the master plan and 700 homes.



Patti Walker

For the record

There has been some confusion about the Referendum. Some people have erroneously stated that if the City Council repeals their adoption of Resolution 06-2957 that amends the General Plan, that the North Fillmore area will revert back to the 894 homes called for in Master Plan. This is not true.

What happens is that is that the zoning defaults back to the General Plan, which is Industrial/Residential Low(RL) zoning. Residential Low zoning is for up to 7 units per acre.

I understand that this is confusing and gets into legal nitpicky stuff but it's time to set the record straight.

The Land Use Element of the General Plan reads on page LU-34 "North Fillmore Master Plan Area: Previous Designations: Industrial - 99 acres. Proposed Designations: Residential Master Plan: 99 acres. "Would transition to low-density residential development, away from existing industrial designations. Future industrial development would be focused in the southwestern portion of the City."

The North Fillmore Master Plan would have been 894 until Specific Plan at 700 was adopted. It has now been nullified, so the zoning defaults back to the General Plan of 7 du per acre.

Start your engines...

...let the race begin. We have six candidates for the 2006 City Council race. We invite all the candidates, citizens, city staff and current City Council members to participate in the blog. Let's talk! What are your issues? Do you think Fillmore is going in the right direction? What would you do to make this town a better place?