What is it about Walmart?

The Letters to the Editor in today's Star are all about Walmart. People seem to either love or hate the company. Walmart obviously didn't grow into the world's largest corporation without generating controversy. The hard part is that a city government has to treat them just like K-Mart, Nordstrom's, Macy's, Home Depot or Target when it comes to applying our zoning and building standards.

Not that citizens aren't entitled to their opinions about what kind of stores they do or do not want in their community. But it is the marketplace, in the end, that decides that. Yes, some cities do recruit or even subsidize retailers they consider "desirable" for a variety of reasons (income to the city, number of jobs, convenience for residents or just status -- 'we have something you don't!') But no one is talking about recruiting or subsidizing Walmart here. They have a signed lease with the property owner. They are deciding whether to occupy the existing K-Mart store or tear the building down and build a new store.

It is true that the City has undertaken an ambitious and controversial effort to revise its old zoning rules because Walmart was coming to Victoria Avenue. But that's because in 2005, the City Council adopted a new 20 year community vision that specifically discouraged Victoria as a site for "'big box', mega-block, auto-oriented strip development and the traffic patterns it generates" and instead supported "healthy economic investment in walkable blocks, connected to better serve the surrounding neighborhoods." The City moved to spell out the rules to implement those lofty, but not very specific goals, prior to Walmart's application being processed.

Walmart still hasn't applied. But we now have a first draft of the new rules and are taking to the City Council tonight a proposal to finalize those rules. That way, Walmart or any other retailer will have to follow the same rules when it comes to building new stores on Victoria.

Reasonable people can certainly disagree about what those rules should be. And reasonable people can certainly disagree on whether they personally want to see a Walmart store on Victoria Avenue. But I hope all reasonable people can agree that we should have clear and consistent rules about what is and is not allowed to be built on Victoria -- regardless of the company that will occupy the building.

Applying our zonings laws is not a popularity contest. Once we agree on the new rules, they should apply to everyone -- whether people like Walmart or not.

Achieving our Vision -- Two year progress report

In a diverse community, finding common ground is always a challenge. Some people are very focused on just one local issue, particularly if it directly affects them. Others take a broader view and want their community to be on the cutting edge of global issues from global warming to ending homelessness. Some pay close attention to city government, others only pay attention when a project is proposed near where they live or an issue makes them angry. Some people think government can solve every problem, while others hate the very idea of government.

All of which makes Ventura's General Plan such a remarkable achievement. In a community where growth is the one issue that gets practically everyone worked up, it represents a broad consensus about how the citizens of this community want to see their community develop over the next twenty years.

Next month marks two years since the City Council unanimously adopted the plan in August 2005. The broad outlines have held up well:

The community remains supportive of NOT sprawling outward and paving over surrounding farmland and hillsides. It has generally supported the alternative of infill in older parts of the community as well as pockets of farmland surrounded by existing development. Our Downtown is seeing many new businesses as well as groundbreaking on several new projects envisioned in the new Downtown Specific Plan.

There has been a surge of support for the City's "green initiative" to conserve energy and water and implement environmentally sustainable practices in our homes, businesses and neighborhoods.

There is even stronger support today for pursuing high wage jobs and new business for Ventura to compete with surrounding communities and ensure that we have a prosperous future. We've seen more than half a million square feet of new commercial office/industrial space come on line since the plan was adopted.

There is widespread involvement in improving our schools, parks and local arts scene to enrich our quality of life.

The focus on public safety is addressing long-term concerns with six new police officers added to the force and an innovative new three-person fire crew added to reduce emergency response times.

Has there been a dramatic change in Ventura? No. This frustrates some people who are unhappy with the pace of development. They are impatient for more new homes and new stores to generate additional resources to beef up our public safety staffing and fix our streets. There are others, of course, who see too much change too soon and who are circulating a petition for a two-year moratorium on most development in the city. So, as usual, you can't please all the people, all the time.

But as we prepare a two-year report to the community on what has been accomplished to implement the Plan -- and what remains to be done -- I think we can all take pride in the overall progress that's been made. Achieving a long-term vision is not accomplished overnight. But Ventura is working successfully together on a shared effort to ensure that Ventura continues to be a great place to live for decades to come.