VENTURA : 75-Foot Downtown Height Limit Studied

The Ventura Planning Commission is considering allowing buildings as high as 75 feet in certain areas of downtown and making other changes in the city’s ongoing redevelopment plan for its historic west-end district.

The proposal to raise the height limit by 40 feet for certain structures is one of several controversial changes to the plan aimed at attracting quality businesses and encouraging affordable housing in the city.

“The heights are totally inconsistent with other buildings downtown,” said Jerome Evans, whose Poli Street home overlooks the redevelopment area. “We don’t see many 75-foot-tall Victorian houses.”

The height limit in the redevelopment area now is 35 feet or three stories high.

At a public hearing Tuesday, several residents questioned the need for increasing height limits and residential density and for rezoning portions of the 151-acre area.

The redevelopment area is bounded by California 33 to the west, Fix Way to the north, Palm Street to the east and Harbor Boulevard to the south.

The proposed revisions would expand the redevelopment area by four acres, including three acres owned by Texaco next to the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

Miriam Mack, the city’s redevelopment administrator, said the proposed changes will give the area a face lift without dramatically altering development downtown. Much of the downtown area is completely built up, she said, and new development would be spread over the next 23 years.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a second public hearing on the changes May 22.

The Ventura City Council must approve any changes. The council will hold a public hearing on the proposal June 25, Mack said.