Harbor makeover sails ahead

For years, Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard appeared stuck in time. Its marina slips and aging docks long ago fell into disrepair. Fisherman’s Wharf is a virtual ghost town of shuttered shops, cracked pavement and peeling paint. Tourists are few.

“There hasn’t been development in this harbor since I started sailing out of it in 1981,” said Kevin Miller, 39. “It’s been at least 20 years since anything was built. It’s dilapidated, the buildings look dated.... It’s sad.”

But that didn’t stop Miller and his wife, Jennifer, from plunking down $1.3 million in October and moving across town to a new home on the back bay of the Ventura County harbor. The house and boat slip are part of Seabridge, a new waterfront community that will eventually include 700 homes priced from $600,000 to $1.8 million.

“This place is so ripe to be turned into something special,” Miller said. “Communities like this one will be a catalyst for change in the old harbor.”

Miller is not alone in his optimism. After years of neglect and mismanagement, the harbor is poised for a renaissance as developers and county officials push an ambitious plan to turn it into a prime Southern California destination.

Lyn Krieger, director of the Harbor Department, estimates that the county and businesses will have invested up to $200 million for harbor improvements by 2010. The county envisions a dramatically different waterfront, with new homes, refurbished and expanded marinas and a redeveloped wharf with new shops and hotels.

“With the new homes we’ll have more people, and that adds business opportunity,” Krieger said. “They will have more discretionary income, greater expectations for services, and they’ll be spending more dollars” in the harbor.

Tucked between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Channel Islands Harbor is a sprawling waterway, split into three disconnected parts along seven miles of shoreline. But it has always suffered from its location off the beaten path, bypassed by visitors on U.S. 101 four miles away and underutilized by locals.

Earlier redevelopment plans fell short because of lack of financing or interest. But as California real estate prices soared over the last decade, county officials renewed their efforts to refurbish the 50-year-old harbor.

South Carolina-based Greystar Real Estate Partners is investing heavily in the property. The company has refurbished 395 apartment units along Peninsula Road and is completing construction of a Hampton Inn hotel. Plans include demolishing the Casa Sirena hotel and Lobster Trap restaurant, decrepit landmarks built in the 1960s, and replacing them with new hotels, retail shops and restaurants.

“Channel Islands Harbor may be the last frontier of affordable waterfront living in Southern California,” said Greystar spokesman Weston Whitman. “We view it as a chance to get in and help create what we hope will be a rejuvenated harbor.”

Other changes are also underway. Almar Management Inc. is spending $18 million on improvements at the three marinas it operates in the harbor. Hundreds of new slips are being added around the harbor as well, bringing the total to about 3,800, county officials say.

“Every marina will be rebuilt,” said Randy Short, president of Almar. “Every lessee in the harbor is stepping up to renovate their property. You’re going to end up with a brand new fresh harbor, new docks and state-of-the-art facilities. It’s a great vision.”

The Harbor Department is also intent on replacing Fisherman’s Wharf, once a focal point for shopping and dining. Officials are negotiating with a developer to step in and rebuild the wharf.

Farther inland, newly dredged channels extend the harbor to create watercourses for new subdivisions, such as Seabridge and nearby Westport, which will include 306 new homes, town houses and condominiums priced from $500,000 to $1.8 million.

“This is a fraction of what it would cost for a house like this in Newport Beach,” Miller said. “Relatively speaking, it’s a bargain.”

But not everyone is thrilled with the changes. Residents have a long history of fighting coastal development projects, from beachfront high-rise condominiums to power plants.

Bridget Nathan, who lives on Peninsula Road in the heart of the harbor, acknowledges that it has lost its luster but doesn’t want to see its low-key charm overrun with new development.

“I’d like my property value to go up, but I love the harbor the way it is,” Nathan said. “I love the hometown feeling. Everyone knows each other. It’s suspended in time, and I love it. The last thing we need is to turn it into another Marina del Rey.”

Lee Quaintance of the Beacon Foundation, an Oxnard-based activist group, faults the county for moving too fast on redevelopment. He said that too often county officials work out deals with developers for new projects without adequately involving community groups.

For example, he pointed out that projects are already moving forward before revisions to the harbor’s public works plan are completed.

“This is being done piecemeal, and it’s developer-driven,” Quaintance said. “They have made their plans, but the public doesn’t always know what is planned. How high will projects be? Will they take parkland? Will it take nesting herons? No one knows. This is not the way development is supposed to occur on public property.”

Clashes between community activists and the county, which owns the harbor, came to a head a few years ago when a citizens group successfully sued to block development of a Boating Instruction Safety Center for young people. The case is now on appeal.

“The lesson here is you have to try to achieve as wide a consensus as possible and include the community,” said Jonathon Ziv of Habitat for Hollywood Beach, a plaintiff in the case. “They were trying to do this project with as little public input as possible.”

The harbor’s location for years has been a liability. But that, too, is changing. About 5,000 residents now live in the area. And the new high-end homes built nearby are expected to bring people with more money that will help drive redevelopment.

“Sure, the harbor is isolated,” Miller said. “But ... it will get going now, with all these new people in these new homes.”

Besides Oxnard, waterfront redevelopment is occurring at Dana Point Harbor, Marina del Rey, Long Beach Harbor and other areas in Southern California.

“Cities are competing with each other in order to attract more tourism and investment in general, and one of the great assets that they see is waterfront projects,” said Clara Irazabal, professor in the School of Policy, Planning and Development at USC. “They can create hubs of activities, but how to go about it makes a big difference. They need to emphasize what makes them unique.”

gary.polakovic@latimes.com