Ventura must enact a moratorium on gas stations and other toxic uses.

Gas stations and drive-thrus are not the benign background components of urban life we think they are.

IT’S NOT JUST THIS PROJECT! We became involved with this specific mix-use project project proposed for a site at Wells Road and Darling in Saticoy just because we thought that the gas station and the housing looked too close together. However, none of us are experts.

But as we researched the issues, it became clear that our city is woefully out-of-date on the effects of these types of businesses on nearby sensitive uses, such as housing and schools. In fact, according to our city planners, they treat gas stations like any other storefront – like yogurt shops or art galleries. Not only does modern science show that they can poison people living close-by with benzene fumes, but they are also possible threats to our water supply, which would affect all of us.

NOTE: This is not a developer issue – he appears to be coloring within the lines he’s been given – but a city issue, where the people in charge of creating safe neighborhoods for our residents are not paying attention.

We are demanding that our city call an immediate moratorium on such projects at any stage of approval until qualified experts, using the most up-to-date data and standards, can ascertain that we are maintaining safe setbacks from homes and schools. Since earthquakes can cause dangerous leakage from gas stations, we are also demanding that no gas stations ever be placed in high hazard zones, in corrosive soil, in soil prone to liquifaction, or near local water sources. All these conditions occur at the Saticoy project site.

A group from Saticoy for Sensible Development has met with each city council member separately, along with City Manager and staff from Assemblymember Bennett’s office and now we need your voices as well. We’ve attached below some of the Powerpoint slides that we showed to our elected officials.

ACTION #1: Write to Ventura City Council members and communicate to them your thoughts about this proposal and all future developments involving gas stations and drive-thrus.

At minimum, ask for a moratorium on all new gas stations and drive-thrus until such time that the City of Ventura engages environmental experts, who, after studying the most up-to-date scientific findings, can inform our city of minimum safe setbacks for such projects from sensitive uses like homes and schools.

Email all council members directly: council@cityofventura.ca.gov
Public comments for meetings: cityclerk@cityofventura.ca.gov

RESOURCES: We’ve attached the PowerPoint presentations below that we’ve shown to our city council members, and the city manager, and other forms that have been submitted as we do them.

Powerpoint presentation – Do we need a gas station and drive-thrus here?

TLDR: No.

“A” is the apartment building, “C” contains (2) drive-thrus and a sit-down restaurant, and section “B” contains a market on the right and an eight pump/16 nozzle gas station on the left.

Section “A” – This is a pretty human apartment building design. Parking is underneath, which saves on the overall amount of paved space on the site, and reduces urban heat island effects. There is elevator access to all the apartments, and the entry ways look like they’ve accounted for wheelchair users needs. There’s a children’s play yard in the middle right, gathering space and a fitness room in the middle and an outdoor lounge area on the right.

It’s with part “C” that the problem starts. “One of the primary environmental concerns associated with drive-thru services is the increased carbon footprint. Vehicles idling in long queues emit substantial amounts of greenhouse gases, contributing to air pollution and climate change. Studies have shown that that drive-thrus can generate up to 1000 grams of carbon dioxide per vehicle, depending on the waiting time. With drive-thru popularity on the rise, the cumulative impact on air quality and carbon emissions becomes significant.“

“Cities across America are banning the construction of fast-food drive-throughs, in a bid to cut air pollution and combat climate change.Minneapolis is one of the latest to bring in rules prohibiting new drive-through restaurants, while towns in California, Missouri and New Jersey already have similar bans in place.”

But air pollution is not the only issue. There are a number of reasons no one wants to live next to these things.

Big industries work hard to hide how dangerous their products are. Older people might remember campaigns like this to promote smoking. (https://exposetobacco.org/news/tobacco-industry-lies/) BTW, this particular battle isn’t over. The tobacco industry is now promoting “tobacco harm reduction” messaging to promote the use of its heated tobacco products (HTPs), and nicotine pouches to solve the addiction issues their product caused. They are targeting medical professionals again, especially dentists.

Gas stations have been part of our city-scapes since the early 1900’s. Some people may actually have petronostalgia for a time when gas stations acted as social hubs, with friendly interactions with uniformed employees who greeted repeat customers by name and gave them full service fill-ups, windshield washing and safety checks, road maps, various freebies and green stamps.

But those those customer services faded away, starting 60 years ago, with the invention of pay-at-the-pump technology. Convenience stores started selling discounted unbranded gas from self-serve pumps and that was the beginning of when we all had to learn what side our gas cap was on.

Now, gas stations themselves are fading. Well, except here in Ventura, where two more are being proposed on the same stretch of road as two existing ones. One place they don’t show up at all, however, is in these richly drawn perspectives for the Saticoy project.

The gas station is on the last page, which isn’t even noted in the drawing index. It’s not labeled as a gas station, but as a “canopy” – an industry term that unfamiliar to many and one that has no recognizable cognate for those who speak Spanish, unlike “gas station” and “gasolinera”. It’s also only rendered in 2-dimensions, a format that many people can’t understand well.

So we drew it in 3-dimensions, so people could see it more clearly.

Contrast and compare – a presentation that de-emphazies the gas station (the appliciant’s drawing), and one that doesn’t (ours).

First important question – do we really need another gas station here? The market area for gas stations is usually calculated on radius from .5 to 1.5 miles. There are already gas stations within both ends of this range. (https://ceds.org/gasstation/)

This leads to to the next question…is it safe to live next to a gas station?

Would you like to live next door to one? Here are some of the issues that they would bring to your doorstep.

One of the most pernicious problems is their tendency to leak.

“Leak” – it sounds inconvenient, maybe messy, but ultimately, just a minor issue. Venturans who live in the Seaward area learned differently when they actually had to be evacuated when the nearby Sinclair gas station leaked. Here are some headlines from our local news sources.

This slide is a bit behind the times – the leak will cost the city of Ventura about $5 million dollars to remediate.

If it were just water leaking out, we’d all be fine… but it’s not water. It’s a known carcinogen that has no safe minimum level.

Oh yeah, and it affects kids as well.

So…how far should your home be from a gas station? The California Air Resources Board made the recommendations below twenty years ago. What astonished us was the fact that they were just “guidelines,” like in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean,” not “rules.” This critical issue was left up to each locality to decide for itself what setbacks they wanted to impose, if any.

Meanwhile, studies continued on how benzene could spread, and its effects on human health.

Benzene is far more agile than we thought back then. A lot of the studies listed come from Europe, which is not as captive to the fossil fuel industry as we are. That also means we have to navigate meters when talking about setbacks.

We are not the first city worried about these issues. But frankly, we were surprised that a city in Florida, a state usually considered more conservative than California, managed to do this in 2019. The oil industry is not pleased.

For those who think we are just alarmists, here are the warnings that are pasted right on the pumps, for godsakes!

This is what the EPA recommended for a setback from sensitive uses like schools.

We appear to be a bit closer than that in the Saticoy project. The apartment building’s ground floor – the covered parking – is set back, and the apartments extend over a row of parking below. We have taken very rough distances from the edge of the canopy to the balcony of the nearest apartment. We welcome the designers’ undoubtedly more accurate dimensions.

Once again, we remind readers that the developer is working within our city’s regulations. We received this information from the planner on this case, who is just interpreting our city’s regulations.

“Setbacks in the Saticoy Village Specific Plan are not based on the use type but the building type and the regulating plan.  The building type for the gas station would be categorized as the “Storefront Type”.  In this case, the storeforont buildings have a required setback of 19 feet from Darling Road and 29 feet from Wells Road.   In addition there is an ally required between the gas station area and the residential area which provides an additional setback area. 

The required setbacks were created in 1996 with the adoption of the Specific Plan and then were amended in 2012.  Saticoy-Village-Specific-Plan-PDF“

It is this standard that we want re-examined for resident safety, and we would like a moratorium on all construction until an actual expert says that this arrangement is safe.

These rough measurements indicate that the children’s play area would land at the 50 meters mark. Once again, we welcome the designers’ undoubtedly more accurate dimensions.

However, the influence of benzene will spread beyond the property lines of this project…

…which just adds to benzene load from nearby gas stations.

So, we asked the question…how close are we? We think we are “sacrifice zone” close. Which is why we are asking for experts to weigh in on this.

Which leads to another question…

The question of toxicity is important for any neighborhood, but this project is one artificial division away from a “Designated Disadvantaged Community” on the Ventura County side of the line. Tell us that the conditions of background pollution noted by the County (light blue area) do not apply to our site right next door, within the same census tract!

This is not the only issue of toxic uses in majority- minority neighborhoods in our city. The Ventura Compressor Station on Ventura Avenue is another example. “The environmental justice issues of residents living near the gas compressor cannot be overlooked,” said Liz Campos, Ventura District 1 City Councilmember. “And the high incidence of leukemia, and other childhood cancers as well as asthma and other CNS illnesses at a school less than 75 yards from the compressor station is criminal from my viewpoint.”

“As a student fellow with Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas (CFROG), one of my duties is to canvas communities alongside peers and colleagues,” said Melissa Muñoz, student and fellow with CFROG. “I have canvassed along the Ventura Avenue communities several times, and each time, the environment makes one’s allergies trigger; they flare up almost immediately, making it hard to breathe. It’s easy to put yourself in the shoes of families and children who live right next to or near this extremely toxic infrastructure. It should make everyone angry that this compressor station is burdening community members. This is an environmental injustice that has been overlooked by decision makers for far too long. The lives of residents of Ventura are at stake here and they must not be overlooked any longer.”

Because gas stations and drive-thrus also do not fit within the city’s General Plan, our Planning Commission turned this project down. It came back on appeal to the City Council.

In 2009, the residents of Saticoy made their own plan. The Planning Commission used this document as justification for turning down this project as well.

If people are physically harmed by this project, courts could award judgements that could bankrupt our city. You can see the gradually increasing awards over time.

But the benzene cloud generated by a gas station and multiple drive-thrus is not the only issue, though it’s one that people living far away from this site might feel they can safely ignore. But there’s a greater issue here, described in the following Geological Study Review. This has also been presented to our city manager.

Powerpoint presentation – Geological Study Review

(Addressed to our City Manager) “You’ve been given the air pollution concerns for the citizens around the Wells and Darling Area. Now, we wonder why no one seems very concerned about a gas station that is .2 miles away from the City’s East End Water Wells. We have grave concerns about the knowledge of the staff who feed you all information to make important decisions. 

1. LOCATION: To understand this information, assume you are standing at the site and below your feet in layers from top to bottom is soil, sediments and rock. 

2. GEOLOGIC MAP: SATICOY QUADRANGLE TITLE PAGE: All soil and geology maps that I have in the talk are digitized maps available on the web thru the USGeological Survey and the USConservation Dept. These maps exist over just about every square foot of the US They are Legal and Binding. THis Saticoy Quadrangle was completed in 2004. 

3. UWCD BLOW-UP OF SATICOY QUAD SHOWING Groundwater basin in discussion. 

Green line shows the Santa Paula Groundwater Basin limits in the alluvial (old riverbed) sediments. 

Black lines are Faults Look at the Oak Ridge along S.Mtn heading out towards Montalvo to the ocean. Est 6 to 8 mag. Earthquakes whenever we get one. We are long overdue. Foothill Fault along Foothill Rd. 

Neon Blue line Wells corridor 

Brown Barranca is an open channel directly across the street from the site.

Talked with the Hydrogeologist there, The Grounddwater Basin is adjudicated by a judge. Meaning Ventura, UWCD, Santa Paula Pumpers could not agree how to share the water. Gina Dorrington with the City and Hydrogeologist are on the Technical Committee formed because of this legal agreement. (yet no one asked Gina about this project) City supposedly has a Groundwater Consultant (Hobson Grdwater) for Water Pure. Have they consulted him? 

4. BLOW-UP of SATICOY QUAD 

  • Qht = Alluvial river beds
  • Qhfy Alluvial fan coming off the mountains formed by streams, carrying Clayey Silts/ Silty Clays, sands and gravels. Based on Geotechnical Report this fan comes down into the property. 

5. SOILS MAP: Pico Sandy Loam mix of mostly sand, silt and minor amounts of clay. About 5 feet thick here. Great for agriculture and is highly permeable.

6. CORE SAMPLE MAP: Geotechnical Report for engineering/building purposes 2018 requested by previous owner. Not valid, as it’s too old and site plans have changed. I’ve heard Ghaderi has a new report, but the public is not allowed to see it. Report shouldn’t be different, Geology doesn’t change, except for building requirements. There were18 samples taken, drilled down 25 feet. None taken where the tanks and pumps would be. They found Silty Clays and Clayey Silts. Very fine grained, and they hit groundwater at 18 feet. Could be higher or lower any given year. Based on rain in the last 4 years, it’s probably higher now. 

Chemical Analysis of these sediments shows them to have a high sulfate content which is highly corrosive. Could be natural, could be pesticides. I talked with an Engineer from this company. Have to be very careful about what piping and tanks are used to build the gas station as tanks can be anywhere form 8 to 15 deep. 

These sediments are highly expansive because of the higher clay content. 

That means the ground will swell and shrink depending on how much water is in the sediments. There was a special addendum written to mitigate this problem for buildings, not written for gas stations. Very costly process. Will they do it right. Too many issues where the developer could cut corners or screw up that would have a direct effect on the water wells and the Santa Clara River since Brown Barranca is an open ditch right across the street. 

7. HOW WATER TRAVELS TO AQUIFER BELOW 300 FEET. 

A Public Works employee told me there was no issue with contamination ever happening. No permeability, no water penetration at depth. That’s incorrect based on what UWCD told me (experts). There is no clay cap stopping surface water from penetrating down to the aquifer the city uses. It gets replenished by surface water all thru the basin traveling in a westerly direction and from where the San Pedro Fm outcrops in the mountains. 

8. LIQUEFACTION MAP from the CA. Seismic Hazard Map 

Liquifaction is when wet, loose ground temporarily loses its strenth during an earthquake and behaves like a thick fluid similar to quicksand. Structures built on this soil can tilt, sink or crack apart.

(https://abag.ca.gov/sites/default/files/lq_rept.pdf) This report discusses numerous issues regarding liquifaction. Here is the section specifically dealing with gas stations.

White areas were not evaluated because they were already built on when the map was made. Now, the State lets everyone build on liquefaction sites. No one really knows what’s going to happen till it happens. All of the Oxnard Plain is in the liquefaction zone, but I’ll bet there aren’t gas stations being built less than a quarter mile away from water wells. 

There have been no major earthquakes with an epicent in Ventura County in modern times to know what will happen in these liquefaction zones, but damage to buildings will most likely be devastating. 

Look at what happened at Front St. when they hit groundwater. (Ventura County Star)

9. BROWN BARRANCA LIQUEFACTION MAP:

CONCLUSIONS: LEGAL REASONS WHY THE CITY CAN STOP HIM 

AB130, SB35 / SB423 all have clauses that stop easy approval process when environmental health hazards exist and property is on seismic hazard maps. 

  • Gas stations face serious scrutiny in other cities. 
  • Our city calls it a storefront? 
    Gina Dorrington on the Tech. Committee for the Grdwater Basin isn’t consulted 
  • Groundwater Consultant, consulted? 
  • Public Works employees either ill-informed or trusting sketchy reports by this developer? Why hasn’t the City told the Developer he can’t build a gas station here?

RWQCB Complaint Form (Regional Water Quality Control Board )

I am representing a small grassroots group (Saticoy for Sensible Development) that is fighting a proposed 16 pump gas station and 2 drive-thrus in the portion of the City of Ventura known as Saticoy. Everyone is very concerned about the potential contamination of groundwater in the area and the air and noise pollution that would develop from this project. We have hundreds of citizens supporting our efforts. We recently turned in a petition to the City with over 160 signatures of residents living around the area. 

For identification purposes, the City’s project number is Proj-23-0424, the Developer calls it Saticoy East Village. The area is located at the SE corner of the Wells Rd/Hwy 118 and Darling Rd Intersection. It is a 4.7 acre plot. 

The developer/owner is Amad Ghaderi. He owns A & S Engineering and Ashdon Development companies. He is known throughout S. California for building gas stations and drive-thru fast food restaurants. It appears he owns 30 other parcels of land in California and one parcel in Parker, Colorado. 

The City has denied Ghaderi’s plans at least twice in the last 10 years. He has now come back tying California’s Affordable Housing Acts (AB130, SB35 and SB423) to his gas station and drive-thru proposal. He plans to add a 68 unit/4 story building with just enough affordable units to comply with state regulations. He thinks that keeps him from having to create an EIR and/or comply with CEQA. We don’t believe allowing polluting businesses attached to affordable housing was the intent of those laws. 

Our group has met with each of the 7 City Council members, Planning Dept Manager and the City Manager of Ventura and the representatives to Senator Limon and Assemblyman Bennett to share our powerpoint presentations on the dangers of Gas Stations in general and this one specifically to people’s health in the area and the city’s water source for the East end of town. We have also presented to the Municipal Advisory Council for the county portion of Saticoy. The local Supervisor for District 1 doesn’t seem too interested in the issue. I have also met personally with the United Water Conservation District (UWCD) Hydrogeologist who is on the technical committee for the Groundwater Basin. We feel like few members of Staff in the City are either ill-informed or uninformed of this project. The Water Dept. Manager (Gina Dorrington) was not informed of this project and she sits on the Technical Committee for the Adjudicated Santa Paula Groundwater Basin. One of the Public Works staff believes misinformation about the groundwater/soils and geology in the area and is basing approval decisions on this. While told by City Officials that no one likes this project, they make it sound like the Developer will get his way. 

We don’t think that should happen. THis is why I would like to file a formal complaint against this project. 

The major concerns to deny this project are: 

  • The station is less than ¼ mile SW of the City of Ventura’s water wells at the intersection of Telephone Rd and Wells Rd/HWY 118. The wells are in a SW direction from the station. The groundwater in the Santa Paula Basin flows in a westerly direction. This groundwater basin is adjudicated with UWCD, City of Ventura and the Santa Paula Pumpers. 
  • Brown Barranca is an open ditch directly west and across Hwy 118 of the proposed gas station. Brown Barranca flows right past the City’s water wells and directly into the Santa Clara River. At times of heavy rainfall, this barranca transports a vast amount of water. 
  • Brown Barranca is in the 100 year floodzone on legally binding State Maps. The proposed gas station is in the 500 year floodzone on these same maps. 
  • The Santa Paula Groundwater Basin is surrounded by major faults that are just waiting to shift. The Oak Ridge Fault is approximately 0.6 miles south of the proposed gas station.  This fault is capable of a 6 to 8 point magnitude earthquake. The Foothill Fault is approximately 2 miles to the north of the site in discussion. 
  • There are two gas stations at Wells and Citrus and another approved gas station to be built against our wishes at Telegraph and Wells. That makes the potential of 4 gas stations within 1/2 mile of each other. That is excessive in anyone’s mind. The pollution dome that could be created by these stations is staggering for the population. 
  • I have read an old Geotechnical Report for the site. It was done for a previous developer and is over 18 years old, but geology doesn’t really change. The report shows the soils and alluvial fan sediments to be highly corrosive due to a high sulfate content. No one can explain if the sulfate is natural or due to pesticides used on the site when it was being farmed. There is a heavy clay content in the alluvial fan sediments and it was noted that they are highly expansive. An addendum to the report was written for the previous developer to deal with the soils chemically in order to stabilize them 
  • The water table was hit at 18 feet when drilling 25 foot core samples for the report. The report stated that the water table could be higher or lower given the amount of rainfall received annually. This shows there is porosity and permeability in the soils and sediments in this area. There is no clay cap, this ground water is not a perched water table. Water taken into the ground will travel to the aquifer. This is proof that gasoline could contaminate the aquifer, when spills or leakage occur due to carelessness, accidents, flooding, corrosion of building equipment. 
  • The site is noted on the California Seismic Hazard map as a liquefaction zone. Yes, people build on liquefaction zones all the time. But do they build 16 pump gas stations so close to a city’s water source? Especially when the basin is so riddled with faulting. 
  • Research shows that children are 2 times more at risk of developing leukemia if they live or go to school within 164 feet of a gas station. This developer wants to build affordable housing 80 feet away from the gas pump canopy. The rest of the community is all residential with a Senior Citizen home and affordable housing for farmworkers being right next door to the drive-thrus and gas station. 
  • Fuel trucks would visit this station daily and use the alley that will separate the gas station from the apartment building he has plans for. The noise and fumes from this will be dangerous and intolerable for all residents, but especially children. Currently there are well over 100 children living within the pollution dome that would exist if this station is built. 
  • The County of Ventura declared Saticoy/(just south of Telephone Rd) a Designated Disadvantaged Community (DDC) due to a combination of economic , health and environmental burdens that the residents must tolerate. The City chose not to declare their side of the same census tract with this destination, even though the residents are still subject to the same amount of air pollution from cars and pesticide load from the surrounding agricultural fields. 
  • Ventura’s Planning Dept. has labeled the gas station as a “storefront”, not a gas station. This could affect permitting issues. 
  • This development goes against the Saticoy and Wells Community Plan as well as Ventura’s previous General Plan and the new General Plan 50. It fits none of the criteria for healthy living, healthy food and pollution free businesses. 
  • We firmly believe our complaint is valid and necessary to protect the health of thousands of citizens in the East End of Ventura. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DZ7x1FMR_Od/

Current results of queries to State and County Agencies

Example comment:

Powerpoint presentation – “How to Hide a Gas Station”.

It’s easier than you think! And it’s great if the city helps you hide this unpopular component too! Until at least until 10:38 am on 8/18, this is what the city had on its development map.

If you can’t read the description on the right, it says: “a new mixed use development consisting of a 49-unit apartment building, a 9.845 square foot market/carwash, a 4,000 square foot commercial building with a drive through and a 2,355 square foot fast service drive-thru dining establishment on a vacant 4.7” (No mention of a gas station!)

Neither did the specific committee agendas that it referenced: City Council: July 1, 2025 (continued from 3/18/2025), and Planning Commission: January 22, 2025. (No mention of a gas station on any of them!) However, the project was denied.

Sometime on the same day we made the above screenshot, the city finally updated the description which has been unchanged for over a year. Here’s a screenshot of the revision. Now the plan is colored blue, indicating that it’s ready for hearings, and it finally admits to the existence of a gas station.

It references the 2 other committee agendas above, along with a mis-dated DRC report – Sept. 3, 2025. Missing is a near-identical report from Nov. 5, 2025, which was pulled before the meeting. (No mention of a gas station on those two either!) Finally, on Nov. 20, 2025, the gas station finally made its first appearance in a public agenda description. The Sept. 2 DRC agenda has not been posted yet, but we assume that the gas station, now outed, is there to stay.

Why are we following the agenda descriptions so carefully? A written description is really the only way most people would discover that a gas station was involved in the project. The attached plans for the DRC sets always showed the gas station, but people who are not skilled at reading plans would not understand what they were looking at. Essentially, the City of Ventura helped conceal this part of the project.

At that is why we created this additional Powerpoint slide set. There’s no way to know if the Owners and his team deliberately made decisions to create a presentation set in such a way to de-emphasize the gas station.

Therefore, we have asked the Community Development Department to fix their submission rules.

  • All built structures should be labeled with common names, like “gas station,” not industry terms like “canopy.”
  • All built structures should be rendered in the same style, i.e. 3-dimensional or 2-dimensional, color or black and white.
  • All prominent views, such as those facing a street, should be rendered from property line to property line.

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