CSU Taylor Ranch Site May Lose City’s OK : Campus: A new proposal pulls back from Ventura’s endorsement of a location for a new campus. It seeks greater control of EIRs.

The Ventura City Council is scheduled to consider a resolution that backs away from its earlier endorsement of a new Cal State University campus at Taylor Ranch west of the city.

The resolution, on the agenda for Monday’s City Council meeting, states that the city “cannot endorse this site over other alternative sites until a comprehensive environmental document evaluates the merits and impacts associated with Taylor Ranch in comparison to other viable alternative sites.”

The city can stop the university project by refusing to annex the land and provide water and sewer services.

But passage of the resolution does not necessarily mean that the city will refuse to set the stage for the university construction at the Taylor Ranch site. By backing away from its earlier support of the site, the city has a stronger negotiating position with the state, city officials said.

In fact, the resolution emphasizes that the city wants more control over the environmental impact report commissioned by the state. It also seeks the formation of a committee of opponents and supporters of the project who would monitor plans for a campus.

Cal State Vice Chancellor John Smart said he is not discouraged by the new resolution, although he sees it as a weakening of support for the university project.

Smart said the state already has sent out letters inviting representatives of the county’s 10 cities and representatives of opposition and support groups to join an advisory committee to oversee the Taylor Ranch plan, he said.

The resolution is the city’s latest maneuver in a tug of war with the state over the site of the new four-year university, which system officials say would serve up to 15,000 students when it reaches its capacity 30 years after it is opened.

The resolution calls for the state to search for alternative sites in Ventura County for the new campus early in the environmental review process.

Responding to that plea from the city, Smart said, “We will address the alternative sites as early as possible in the EIR, but the focus is the Taylor Ranch.”

The resolution also says the city should not be expected to contribute financially to the improvements to city streets or to provide other services needed because of the new university.

Mayor Richard Francis, a strong supporter of the university’s bid to build at Taylor Ranch, predicted that the resolution will pass. He will support it, he said, because he does not see it as a reversal of his earlier position.

In the past, Councilmen James Monahan and John McWherter also have supported the Taylor Ranch site. Council members Gary Tuttle, Cathy Bean and Donald Villeneuve have opposed the site, and Councilman Todd Collart has taken no position.

Tuttle, elected in 1989 on a strong anti-Taylor Ranch platform, complained that the resolution is too weak.

“The best we can hope for is that the EIR will uncover enough problems to make them go somewhere else,” Tuttle said.