Ventura Council Rejects Land Swap : Development: Builder is thwarted in plan to trade parcels with the city and then build 437 homes on what is now a city-owned lemon grove.

After an eastside Ventura park swap proposal was defeated in an acrimonious City Council meeting, some developers and greenbelt preservationists said Tuesday that they see new opportunities amid the project’s ruins.

“The whole city should be pleased with the vote,” said builder Jaime Santana, who for weeks had tried to get the council to open up the regional park deal to all developers.

And greenbelt activist Sheri Vincent said that the council rejection of developer Ron Hertel’s plan to swap parcels with the city--and then build 437 homes on what is now a city-owned lemon grove--is at least a temporary victory.

“I’m stoked,” said Vincent, a homeowner who is leading a drive to halt construction on Ventura farmland without voters’ permission. “Last night really helped us.”

During a five-hour hearing Monday evening, council members also rejected a controversial proposal by the Neel family to build 120 homes on 22 acres in the old Ventura Avenue oil-field area, because neighboring business owners said the project does not fit with heavy industry.

The council did, however, approve Ventura’s first new housing projects in four years, allocated 413 housing units to four developers in mid- and eastern Ventura. Allocations had been stalled first by a drought-induced moratorium and then by council indecision last year.

Council members--in distributing 40% of the 1,018 units to be allocated over the next five years--approved:

* A 227-house project by Beazer Homes on 42 acres at Telegraph and Kimball roads;

* A 105-home community planned by Wittenberg-Livingston for 19 acres east of Saticoy and north of North Bank Drive;

* A 60-unit apartment house and small shopping center by Ventura resident Bill Martin at Darling Road and Saticoy Avenue;

* A 21-unit addition to a 180-home Weston Co. project at Telephone Road and Clay Avenue.

While those four projects survived, Hertel said he may abandon his years-long effort to gain council support for his new upscale community near Telegraph Road at Petit Avenue.

Hertel said he has not decided whether to drop his project or compete with other developers in an open-bidding process now planned by the City Council. The council reserved 400 housing units to award to the developer who comes up with the best eastside park deal for its 87 acres.

“I think we’re just going to sit and listen for awhile,” a resigned Hertel said Tuesday. The Hertel proposal died when a motion of support by Councilman Jack Tingstrom failed to get a second Monday evening. Councilman Jim Monahan had supported Hertel in the past, but said later that he did not want to go on record in support of the measure because it had apparently failed. The two other council members who participated in the debate--Steve Bennett and Mayor Tom Buford--opposed the project.

Council members Rosa Lee Measures, Gregory L. Carson and Gary Tuttle abstained because they own property nearby and had a legal conflict of interest.

Tingstrom said Tuesday that he is worried that Hertel--who had also offered $2 million to help the city build its regional park--might now turn his back on the land swap and look for new deals.

“I think we went a long way toward closing a door on a park,” Tingstrom said. He said that other developers, unlike Hertel, do not have a large, flat parcel to offer the city as a park. “That was the key to the whole deal.”

In a second major debate, the council rebuffed the Neel family’s Ventura Avenue project that had once enjoyed enthusiastic support from the council. The project still has the backing of Kinko’s, one of the city’s largest employers, whose national headquarters is next door.

But opposition from small-business owners whose lands line the edges of the Kinko’s and Neel properties persuaded council members to delay granting allocations until the new homes’ compatibility with nearby industry can be fully discussed.

Property owner Bill Neel said he is baffled by the council action, but will continue to pursue his project.