Our Message
VC COLAB is a group of agricultural and other business folks who have come together out of frustration with the system. We formed this 501 c (6) non-profit organization to work with public agencies and decision makers in Ventura County to provide regulatory solutions for business and private property owners.
More.
Our goal is to be informed, credible and well-funded as we analyze new and revised land use and other regulations proposed by the agencies. Poorly conceived regulations cause unintended consequences that hamstring businesses, stifle job creation and increase government bureaucracy causing constant pressure for tax increases. Through your membership and contributions we will hire respected professional scientists, attorneys and engineers to critically review guidelines, ordinances, policies and projects and to help agencies draft reasonable regulations. In addition, through our “Newsletter” and “Our Stories” pages we will bring sunshine to the permit processing system by posting real accounts, exposing the consequences of unreasonable rules to our families and businesses in the county.
Hiring respected professionals to analyze complicated regulations is expensive, time consuming and we believe is best accomplished with a coalition of like-minded business members. We know you would rather spend your valuable time running your business. Therefore, we invite you to become a part of our coalition and help fund our efforts to represent your regulatory issues. Please join us and help support our agenda for change!
Don’t put it off – Please join us TODAY!
AnnouncementsRead Our May 2013 Newsletter
Posted on 02. May, 2013 | 0 Comments
May 2013 Newsletter
Find out about hydraulic fracturing “fracking” in California and Ventura County.
Read our article on Marz Farm’s Innovery Ranch berry operation and the challenge of farming in the urban interface.
VC COLAB Spring Event
Posted on 18. Apr, 2013 | 0 Comments
You are invited!
VC COLAB’s Spring Event at Beautiful Rancho Matilija
Courtesy of the Gramckow Family
SATURDAY, JUNE 8th. – 3:30 to 7:30 PM
12410 Ranch Road, Ojai
Come and enjoy!
SOCIAL TIME WITH MUSIC BESIDE THE BEAUTIFUL LAKE
CHICKEN & TRI-TIP BBQ
ANTIQUE TRACTOR PARADE
No Host Beer, Wine and Margaritas
FEATURED SPEAKER: TIMOTHY SANDEFUR
(Principal Attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation)
ONLY $35.00 PER TICKET
PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT OUR EFFORTS!!!
Tickets on Sale at http://www.colabvc.org/event-tickets/
VC COLAB Comments to the US EPA on TMDLs
Posted on 28. Jan, 2013 | 0 Comments
Click HERE for VC COLAB Comments submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on TMDLs that will affect Agriculture, Horse Owners, Cattle Ranchers and all residents in Ojai and the Ventura River Watershed
» Read MoreEPA Releases Draft “Flow” TMDL for the Ventura River
Posted on 26. Dec, 2012 | 0 Comments
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft “Flow” TMDL for the Ventura River TRUMPING a parallel ”Algae” TMDL adopted in December by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. If adopted, the regulation will have serious implications for farmers, horse owners, cattle grazers and septic system users. The comment period ends at 5:00 pm on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2012. VC COLAB will submit a comment letter by the deadline. More details will follow in our January Newsletter.
» Read MoreComment on Pumping/Diversion Draft MOA Framework
Posted on 02. Oct, 2012 | 0 Comments
VC COLAB submitted a letter to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board on 9-24-12 commenting on the draft Memorandum of Agreement Framework proposed as an alternative to TMDL’s.
» Read MoreCounty supervisors plan to reform pensions but are split on land use
Posted on 16. Jan, 2013 | No Comments
Kathleen Wilson/VC Star/1-9-13: As three Ventura County supervisors begin new terms this week, both board members and pundits expect a united front on pension reform but continuing divisions over land use…(Full Article) The board majority frequently is at odds with the Ventura County Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business, a group that backed Roper. Coalition President Bud Sloan doubts much will change with the three board members starting new terms…He said that doesn’t change the coalition’s effort to educate the board…
» Read MoreSomis residents appeal for help on pesticide investigation
Posted on 16. Jan, 2013 | No Comments
Kathleen Wilson/VC Star/1-15-2013: Saying their health has been jeopardized by inaction of the county Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, close to a dozen Somis residents pressed county supervisors Tuesday to intervene in a pesticide investigation…(Full Article) Jeanette Lombardo, a consultant for Marz, said the grower had made numerous efforts to address the neighbors’ concerns…”Marz Farms feels it is more appropriate to wait for the county agricultural commissioner to issue his final report before responding,” she told the board…
» Read MoreEnvironmental Protection Up in Smoke
Posted on 19. Sep, 2012 | No Comments
Terry Anderson/WSJ/9-17-12: Dead wood fuels wildfires. Too bad lawsuits keep the Forest Service from thinning out the trees – When the wildfires that are burning millions of acres in the West are finally smothered by winter snows, environmentalists undoubtedly will blame climate change. They might look in the mirror instead (Full Article). Environmental laws since the 1970s require public input into federal land-use decisions including logging on national forests. This has led to lawsuits challenging efforts by the U.S. Forest Service to prevent…
» Read MoreThere Is No California
Posted on 05. Sep, 2012 | No Comments
Victor Davis Hanson/Tribune Media Svc/8-20-12: Driving across California is like going from Mississippi to Massachusetts without ever crossing a state line (Full Article)…Consider the disconnects: California’s combined income and sales taxes are among the nation’s highest, but the state’s deficit is still about $16 billion. It’s estimated that more than 2,000 upper-income Californians are leaving per week to flee high taxes and costly regulations, yet California wants to raise taxes even higher; its business climate already ranks near the bottom of most surveys
» Read MoreEffort building to change state’s landmark environmental law
Posted on 23. Aug, 2012 | No Comments
Tim Herdt/VC Star/8-21-12: … A coalition of business groups held a news conference Monday to lay out the principles for what it calls a “modernization” of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)… Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles, said last week he is amenable to regulatory reform measures… And Gov. Jerry Brown, who has been critical of CEQA since his days as mayor of Oakland, last week told reporters that he’d “never seen a CEQA exemption I didn’t like”… (Full Article)
» Read MoreMeeting presents vision for Ventura River
Posted on 19. Jul, 2012 | No Comments
Arlene Martinez/VC Star/7-19-12:…Ventura River Parkway, a long-term project they say could create recreational, educational and economic benefits (Full Article)…The groups hope to work with private property owners, securing conservation subdivisions. But such subdivisions — a legal process that involves slicing a piece of land in cases when not an entire piece of property is being donated — can be time-consuming and costly.”It’s really a pretty daunting process,” said Lynn Jensen, whose firm Jensen Design & Survey is assisting the Ojai conservancy with a…
» Read MoreSept. 10 for Oral Arguments on Appeals to Wanger Smelt Opinion
Posted on 12. Jul, 2012 | No Comments
Dave Puglia/Western Growers/7-12-12: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments addressing appeals relating to Judge Wanger’s 2010 decisions to invalidate and remand the 2008 delta smelt biological opinion to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and to grant injunctive relief last year over the FallX2 action. The oral argument will address the appeal in the San Luis & Delta Mendota Water Authority v. NRDC aka The Consolidated Delta Smelt Cases. Now retired from the bench, Wanger found inconsistencies with the federal government’s…
» Read MoreRural kids, parents angry about Labor Dept. rule banning farm chores
Posted on 26. Apr, 2012 | No Comments
Patrick Richardson/The Daily Caller/4-25-12: A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now it’s attracting barbs from farm kids themselves (Full Article). The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land. Under the rules, children under 18 could…
» Read MoreJoel Kotkin: The Great California Exodus
Posted on 23. Apr, 2012 | No Comments
Editorial/Allysia Finney/Wall St. Journal/4-20-12: A leading U.S. demographer and ‘Truman Democrat’ talks about what is driving the middle class out of the Golden State. California is God’s best moment,” says Joel Kotkin. “It’s the best place in the world to live.” Or at least it used to be . . . Now, however, the Golden State’s fastest-growing entity is government and its biggest product is red tape (Full Article). . . Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last…
» Read MoreVentura County forecasts need to follow the numbers
Posted on 09. Apr, 2012 | No Comments
Editorial/Pac. Coast Business Times/4-6-12: Harry Truman famously asked for a one-handed economist who would not equivocate when making forecasts. The latest Ventura County prognostications make the former president look very smart indeed. For California Lutheran University economist Bill Watkins, the future is negative. According to his Ventura County outlook on March 29, the county lost jobs last year, it will continue to lose well-paying positions, and young people are fleeing the county for work in other states. (Subscribe to PCBT)
Not so fast, countered…
