Resoling Downtown : District Hopes for New Shine After Years of Being Down at the Heels

John Raines, 83, has lived through the rise and fall of Ventura’s downtown, and now he hopes to witness its revival.

Back when Raines’ father opened Raines Shoe Co. on Main Street in 1909, Ventura was a booming oil town and trade center of about 40,000 residents.

In the years that followed, downtown Ventura kept growing. In its heyday in the 1940s, Main Street was filled on Friday and Saturday nights with hundreds of shoppers and moviegoers from all over the county.

“In those days, Saturday night was the time to come downtown, get out of the car, and just watch people walk up and down Main,” Raines said.

Today, downtown Ventura seems passed over by the vibrancy that hums in most quaint beach towns that dot the state’s coastline. Downtown is a conglomeration of thrift stores, faded coffee shops and furniture outlets that cater largely to the working class from Ventura Avenue neighborhoods and legions of yuppie bargain hunters. Nearly everything shuts down well before the sun sets.

For years, Ventura city officials have tried to bring back the bustling activity of downtown’s golden years through redevelopment. Tonight, acting as the city’s Redevelopment Agency, the Ventura City Council will vote on a series of measures intended to revive that bygone era.

The council will consider doubling the number of housing units, from 500 to 1,000, in the redevelopment district, which covers much of the older, west end of the city. It will also consider allowing buildings as high as 75 feet, or six stories tall, in the four city blocks west of Palm Street between Thompson Boulevard and Santa Clara Street. The height limit is now three stories, or 35 feet.

In other revisions to the redevelopment plan, most industrial buildings in the area would be replaced by commercial and residential structures. All new buildings would have to meet tight design standards and be compatible with the Victorian, Art Deco, mission or California bungalow styles prevalent in the area. Developers would also have to install benches and fountains in public places to get a building permit.

The redevelopment district is bordered by Fix Way and Poli Street on the north, the Ventura Freeway on the south, Palm Street on the east, and the Ojai Freeway on the west.

The changes are aimed at attracting quality businesses downtown and increasing foot traffic by placing residents close enough to the city center so they can walk to work, shop or eat.

But critics believe the redevelopment plan is a pipe dream, and that the city’s latest efforts to revive downtown will kill what’s left of it.

“I am concerned that the heart of Ventura may turn into a ‘condo kingdom’ abounding with fanciful, spackled stucco imitations of the mission style and massive office and motel complexes that wall off the ocean view,” said attorney Bruce Frazier in a recent letter to the City Council.

Moreover, the city’s water shortage hangs over new development like a sword of Damocles. Council members--all of whom have said that improving downtown is among their top priorities--warn that no new development will take place downtown or elsewhere until the drought ends or the city secures sufficient water supplies.

Modern-day Ventura got its start with the discovery of oil in the area in the 1860s, and the arrival of the Southern Pacific railroad in 1887. Almost overnight, these two developments transformed the city from its sleepy beginnings as a frontier town inhabited by a few thousand Chumash Indians, Mexican cattle ranchers and American adventurers.

Before long, the Ventura Theater and the Mayfair Theater were showing Hollywood premieres to full houses. Dozens of family owned shops, bars, restaurants, hotels, the major banks and even a bathhouse all prospered in downtown.

Raines Shoe Co., the city’s oldest store still operating, opened its doors when Ventura had just completed the process of becoming a modern city with its own school district, sewer system, public transportation and civic pride.

At the height of the city’s splendor, Montgomery Ward & Co. anchored Main Street. But Raines said there were plenty of other department stores to choose from, including J.C. Penney and Sears.

Nearby, the beach offered an added attraction within walking distance of the shops--an opportunity to swim and shop in a single afternoon.

Even without the shoppers, downtown had a life of its own. Thousands of city dwellers made their homes above and around the shops and hundreds of attorneys and businessmen maintained offices to be close to the old county government center on Poli Street.

By the end of World War II, Main Street had become the undisputed financial, retail, political, cultural and entertainment hub of Ventura County.

But soon thereafter, downtown Ventura began to experience its own version of flight to the suburbs. Businesses began to follow home builders to the cheaper, available land in the eastern section of the city. What began in the 1950s climaxed a decade later with the opening of the San Buenaventura Plaza shopping mall in 1962. At the time, the mall was the largest between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Montgomery Ward and Sears led the move out of downtown. Soon many others followed them to the mall. “We hated to see them go but there was nothing we could do about it,” Raines said. “I had a chance to move, too, but I’m glad I didn’t because rent has gone up so much out there.”

Later, the completion of the Ventura Freeway dealt downtown another blow by opening the east end of the city to developers and cutting off downtown from the beach.

“The freeway served as a physical and psychological barrier,” said city Community Development Director Everett Millais. “Downtown was never the same.”

The low point for downtown came when the county decided to move its offices to a new government center on Victoria Avenue. The county’s legal community and others followed suit.

It was then that the city of Ventura began its efforts to revive downtown by buying the county government center, which became City Hall.

“It was the beginning of the city’s commitment to maintain and restore downtown,” Millais said.

In 1978 the redevelopment agency began renovating the historic San Buenaventura Mission and excavating an archeological site next to the mission ruins.

Other redevelopment projects since then include the low-income housing project surrounding the mission and the Von’s shopping center on East Main Street. The Redevelopment Agency also built a beach promenade and spruced up some of the beachfront areas.

The changes now being proposed are the initial steps of an ambitious plan spearheaded by city planners and the Downtown Ventura Assn., a consortium of local businesses, to bring downtown back to life.

In coming months, local merchants and city officials hope to stage an evening street fair every Thursday, build a taxi platform, renovate the Ventura Pier, host an annual three-day music festival and improve Grant Park. They also plan to upgrade and make older buildings downtown earthquake-proof through low-interest loans.

“I can see downtown Ventura as a place where people want to go and spend some time instead of zipping in, picking up something and taking off,” said attorney Dennis LaRochelle, president of the Downtown Ventura Assn.

But before any of these projects can come to fruition, Millais said, the city will have to allow housing projects and entice businesses--perhaps even a department store or two--through the changes proposed for the redevelopment plan.

“We need an economic base to promote these changes,” Millais said. “Those massive amounts of federal funds for redevelopment projects don’t come in anymore.”

But not everyone likes the plan. At a public hearing last week, about a dozen residents spoke out against the proposed changes to the redevelopment plan.

Hillside residents complained that the proposal to allow six-story buildings would block their views. Ventura Avenue residents argued that what the city needs is low-income housing, not glitzy, expensive high-rises.

Owners of industrial buildings in the district said changes in zoning to reduce the size of the industrial areas would diminish their property values. Merchants said they feared their rents would go up.

And some city residents raised the water-shortage issue.

“The proposed changes will further increase the water shortage, traffic circulation will get worse and there will be more air pollution,” Grant Phillips told the council at the hearing. “By relaxing height restrictions and increasing population density you will diminish the quality of life in this special part of town.”

Undaunted by these critics, city planners continue to argue that downtown is a precious, but wasted resource. Where else, they say, can one find a coastal town with an old-fashioned commercial strip wide enough for diagonal parking within walking distance of the beach, the hills and historic ruins?

“If you drive down Victoria Drive it’s hard to tell what city you’re in,” Millais said. “You can find K marts and fast-food places anywhere. But you drive downtown and it’s different. Downtown has a distinct community identity.”

The revival of downtown is as essential to the city’s self-image as it is to its economic survival, Millais said. It can’t be accomplished without a solid population base and attractions for city residents, tourists and shoppers.

History will show if city planners have chosen the right approach. But for Raines, who says he “isn’t much into politics these days,” the success of the redevelopment plan would make a dream of his come true.

“In the old days, within six or seven blocks we took care of everybody’s needs,” said Raines, who tends his shop on Main Street every day despite his age. “It would sure be nice to do it again.”