Vote a key step to Limoneira project

Ventura County Star - A greenbelt agreement that paves the way for the Limoneira Co. development to be built outside Santa Paula was unanimously approved Monday by the town’s City Council.

Last year, Santa Paula voters OK’d using a little more than 500 acres of agricultural land for the development of homes, public amenities and businesses east of the city limits. The decision represented the largest urbanization of Ventura County farmland since voters began approving open-space initiatives more than a decade ago.

But the project could not go forward without modifying a greenbelt that dated from 1980.

Encompassing 34,000 acres, that stretch of unincorporated county land lies between Santa Paula and Fillmore. The new agreement removes the Limoneira property while adding 180 acres of open space located in the Santa Clara River bed and south of that location.

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