Supervisors Seek State Loan for $500,000 Boat Storage Facility

Ventura County has applied for a $500,000 state loan to build a boat storage facility on U.S. Navy property adjacent to Channel Islands Harbor.

The application, approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, is the first step toward toward constructing a 250-stall facility on a six-acre site near the Victoria Avenue entrance to the Naval Construction Battalion Center base.

County officials are negotiating with the Navy for a long-term lease on the property. Supervisor John Flynn said that in exchange, the county would lease the Navy up to 28 boat slips at Channel Islands Harbor plus a harbor building where Navy personnel could sail and train.

Officials at county-run Channel Islands Harbor say a dry-dock facility is needed to meet future boating demands at the harbor, which is expected to have a shortage of about 500 boating slips by the mid-1990s. According to county estimates, the storage facility would open for business in 1989 at two-thirds capacity and be completed by spring of 1990.

Low-interest funding for such construction would be available next year from the state Boating and Waterways Fund, officials said. If granted, the loan would be repaid by rentals the project generates.

Blake Boyle, manager of recreation services for Ventura County, said the dry boat storage facility is part of a long-term plan to upgrade and expand the Channel Islands Harbor.

In October, the county agreed to seek a separate $500,000 state loan to construct a 150-foot commercial fishing dock at the harbor’s western end near Tugs Restaurant.