North and South Aren’t the Only Extremes at Entryways

Although they share the same shape and the same street, two monuments that mark the main gateways to Oxnard are, well, poles apart.

At the south end of town, rows of tall posts next to Oxnard Boulevard near Rose Avenue welcome travelers to the city.

At the north end of town, rows of tall posts next to the boulevard’s intersection with Gonzales Road do the same thing.

The poles on the south side were constructed of steel and precisely lined up to form a $250,000 high-tech sculpture that has become a cornerstone of a new city art program.

But the poles on the north side are made of $600 worth of wood that was haphazardly grouped to form the kind of eyesore that city officials say they are struggling to eliminate.

The nine-pole metal sculpture on the south side of town is called “Connections.” The artwork stands in the Channel Islands Business Park and was commissioned two years ago by the developer of the $200-million industrial complex.

No one can remember when the six wooden poles were put up at the north end of town. They form a semicircle next to the busy boulevard, which also serves as part of California 1. Officials say the telephone pole-size posts are the legs to billboards--things that have worn out their welcome in Oxnard.

City officials have been trying for years to regulate signs, said Dennis Tagashira, an Oxnard planner. Large pole signs are banned at new developments and at commercial buildings that are being remodeled.

“If a nonconforming billboard falls down or someone hits it, we don’t let them put it back up,” said Richard Maggio, community development director for Oxnard.

“That billboard up there on those poles was either hit or something happened to it. We won’t let them put the sign back up. But the poles are legal.”

The same beautification effort led the Oxnard Planning Commission in 1985 to begin requiring developers to install murals, fountains and sculpture through an unusual “Art in Public Places” program.

The art dedication program was expanded and beefed up last October by the Oxnard City Council, which approved permanent guidelines for developers.

Art donations are required of developers building 100,000 square feet or more of interior space. Builders must provide outside artwork that is “reasonably visible to the public” and is as vandal-proof and weatherproof as possible.

Works can include sculptures, fountains, murals, statues and other expressions of art that are approved in advance by a city committee. But it has to be art, not advertising: No “signage or logos” are allowed.

So far, 13 builders have agreed to spruce up Oxnard by commissioning public works of art. Officials estimate the value of the artwork at about $1.5 million.

Along with the Channel Islands Business Park’s pole sculpture, there is a sculpture fountain at the Financial Plaza high-rise, a similar sculpture at the Ransco Industries project on Statham Parkway, a brushed aluminum sculpture at the Sammis Business Center, two granite waterfalls at the BMW auto dealership at Hueneme Road and Arcturus Avenue, and a mural at the South Oxnard Center.

Officials say four other art projects have been approved for construction this year. They are a sculpture called “Flight of Fish” at the North Coast Executive Center, a sculpture called “Northern Lights” at the new Plaza del Norte, a sculpture at the Oxnard Auto Center and a kinetic aluminum sculpture at the Chevron Building.

Two other developers have given the city $19,000 each to commission artworks for their projects. They are a residential project at Ventura Road and Vineyard Avenue and for a Public Storage yard on Hueneme Road.

Although the cities of Burbank and Santa Monica are reportedly looking at adapting Oxnard’s public arts guidelines for their own use, no other cities in Ventura County have inquired about the program, said Michael J. Gibson, an Oxnard city analyst and special projects coordinator for the Community Development Department.

Oxnard’s appointed Art in Public Places Committee evaluates all project proposals. Artists are given wide leeway with proposals, although the seven-member panel judges the acceptability of proposed artwork on the basis of its scale, its harmony with adjacent structures and landscaping.

In the case of kinetic sculpture with moving parts, “we have a structural engineer on the committee who watches to see there will be no risk of it spinning off its platform,” said Gibson, who is a committee member.

The most visible of the new artworks is “Connections,” the 80-foot-high grouping of industrial park poles commissioned by the Told Corp.

Hank Urbach, vice president for marketing of the firm, said artist Robert Behrens’ poles have created a landmark as well as a unique southern entryway to Oxnard. “We’re ecstatic about the way it turned out,” he said.

So are Oxnard officials. But some of the poles’ neighbors aren’t.

“I think it was a waste of money. It really doesn’t denote art to me,” said Joe Pardue, a truck driver who has lived for 15 years in a neighborhood that is now next to the poles.

“Art is a picture or a statue that denotes a place or time. It’s something other than sticks.”

Virginia Garcia, who can see the poles from her front door, said they are “dumb”--distracting to Oxnard Boulevard motorists.

Oxnard residents don’t care for the billboard pole sculpture at the northern end of town either.

“I don’t think they look good out there at all,” said Chet Corser, manager of a McDonald’s restaurant across the boulevard from the wooden poles.

Manuel Betancourt, an Oxnard packinghouse worker, said he would like to see the wooden poles replaced with a copy of artist Behrens’ metal poles.

“I call the ones on the south side art. But these? They look like poles. They look nasty.”

Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi said the city has endorsed the metal-pole gateway but not the wooden one. He said he is hopeful that the Art in Public Places program will eventually provide a better northern entryway to the city.

“As people come up Highway 1, it helps make a statement,” Takasugi said. “Here’s a modern, progressive city you’re coming into.”