300 Attend Session on Ventura’s Future

About 300 people--many who had plenty to say about the city’s future--attended a Saturday community event that offered a working draft of VISION, a list of proposed planning strategies for Ventura.

The Seize the Future Committee, which has 39 city and community representatives, organized the event at Arroyo Verde Park. The day featured bands, free food and 11 booths that focused on various city issues, including transportation, education and infrastructure.

Each booth had information officers and paper for people to scribble suggestions.

The working draft included such ideas as creating a pedestrian promenade from the downtown area to the beach, a regional sports park and community center for the east side and attracting high-quality, low-scale industry to the city.

“The event went very well,” said Everett Millais, director of special projects for Ventura. “People have not been bashful about giving their ideas and that is what we wanted.”

The idea behind VISION is to present a concept of Ventura’s future based upon public opinion.

“Some of the stuff was repeats, some was affirmation and some was new,” Millais said. “Our next step is to synthesize all of the information.”

The public can see and evaluate the working draft using a response form available at City Hall or checking the committee’s Web site at https://www.seizethefuture.com.