CSU Panel Lists Taylor Ranch as a Site Finalist : Development: The 35-member advisory committee recommends that environmental impact studies be conducted on the four locations.

An advisory committee on Friday recommended four locations, including the controversial Taylor Ranch site west of Ventura, for a potential Cal State University campus in Ventura County.

The 35-member committee recommended the Duntley Trust north of Central Avenue near western Camarillo, a site at Foothill Road northeast of Ventura and the Diedrich-Donlon property south of Wooley Road near Oxnard.

As alternate sites, the committee picked property owned by Lusk Development Co. across Harbor Boulevard from the Ventura harbor, property owned by the Hugo McGrath family across Harbor Boulevard from McGrath State Beach and a site west of Santa Paula and south of California 126.

The committee--made up of representatives from the county, four cities and community and environmental groups--recommended that Cal State trustees order environmental impact studies of the four sites to determine the effects a university would have on traffic, neighborhoods and air quality.

Representatives of Oxnard, Camarillo and Santa Paula restated their support for a university near their borders.

The Ventura City Council has been divided on whether a campus should be situated in or near the city. But Ventura’s representative on the advisory committee offered qualified support Friday for a site near the city.

“Ventura will be willing to live with” a campus near its borders, said Todd Collart, a City Council member. “Of the three sites that could end up in Ventura’s back yard, the Taylor Ranch site offers the greatest benefits to the city of Ventura.”

Collart said, however, that the city would not pay for roads or freeway off-ramps to accommodate a campus.

A committee of Cal State trustees is scheduled to meet in Oxnard on Oct. 31 to decide which sites will be studied. University officials have said the advisory committee’s recommendations will weigh heavily in the trustees’ decision.

Once the trustees make their decision on the final sites, environmental impact studies--which will cost at least $300,000--will commence and take about six months to complete, Vice Chancellor John Smart said.

Cal State Trustee Anthony M. Vitti, chairman of the Board of Trustees’ site-selection committee, said, excluding the Taylor Ranch property, the three sites picked were “at the top of my list.”

“The problems we’ve had with Taylor Ranch have not disappeared,” he said, referring to the property’s unwilling sellers and community opposition. “We have got to face up to the realities.”

Vitti added that “a decision has not been made to scrap Taylor Ranch.”

The university had preferred the Taylor Ranch property but dropped plans for the site in June after the owners said they would not sell, community opposition developed and the Ventura City Council refused to support it.

Everett Millais, Ventura’s director of community development, said Friday that the Taylor Ranch property should be preserved for the public and that building a university would accomplish this.

“It’s a spectacular piece of property,” he said. “I have no faith that the property owners have any interest in having the property go to the public.”

Owners have brought several plans for development of the property to the Ventura Planning Department, he said.

The committee narrowed the number of potential sites from nine to four, naming the three additional sites as alternates and excluding two sites from consideration.

Land owned by Sakioka Farms in Oxnard, a property once considered a front-runner for the campus site, was eliminated because of noise from the nearby Camarillo Airport. The committee eliminated a second site along Oxnard Boulevard between Rice and Rose avenues because three schools already have plans to build on the land.

The committee supported the Duntley Trust property partly because its owners are willing to negotiate, and the land could be purchased within the university’s budget. A portion of the property, however, is under the flight path of the Camarillo Airport and the California Youth Authority compound is next to the site along Wright Road.

The Foothill site was favored by the committee partly because improvements are planned on roads leading to it. The committee liked the Diedrich-Donlon property for its flat acreage, which is flanked on three sides by development.

CAL STATE UNIVERSITY SITES

1. Taylor Ranch: 450 hillside acres west of the Ventura River and north of the Ventura Freeway overlooking the ocean. 2. Foothill Site: 700 acres between Kimball and Wells roads, straddling Foothill Road northeast of Ventura. 3. Duntley Trust: 600 acres that include the Duntley property and a 277-acre plot owned by Sakioka Farms north of Central Avenue and east of Santa Clara Avenue west of Camarillo. 4. Diedrich/Donlon Property: 300 acres south of Wooley Road between Rose and Rise avenues in an unincorporated pocket of east Oxnard.