City Council OKs Policy for Ormond Beach

For the second time in about a month, the Oxnard City Council has delayed adoption of a General Plan, formulated to guide development in the city for the next 30 years.

However, the council did vote Monday on a long-debated issue in the plan--unanimously approving a policy to guide development in the Ormond Beach area in the southwest corner of the city.

The council voted unanimously Monday to delay approval of the entire document, called the 2020 General Plan, for at least a week to give city staff members time to meet with a housing rights group that says the plan does not provide enough low-income housing.

The 2020 General Plan, which has been under consideration or revision for the past four years, allows for an increase of 13,462 housing units and could add 73,768 jobs. About 2,000 of those units would be set aside for low-income residents.

The previous decision to delay adoption occurred Aug. 31 when the council voted to put off discussing the plan for one month until a council member returned from a three-week vacation.

The council began to consider the plan Friday and Monday, and it is expected to meet again today to address some remaining unresolved issues.

Councilman Manuel Lopez suggested delaying adoption of the plan after the council was told that about 300 residents from a housing rights group called Via Campesina were scheduled to protest before the council Monday night.

Lopez suggested that the council not take action on the plan until City Manager Vernon Hazen can meet with a representative of the group. The council will continue discussions today.

A meeting between the two has been tentatively scheduled for Oct. 10.

Teresa Cortes, president of Via Campesina, said she was disappointed the council did not meet Monday night to hear the group’s concerns. “Usually you keep a schedule and you don’t break it unless someone dies,” she said.

Cortes said the 300 residents will not be able to gather for today’s meeting because most of them work during the day.

Via Campesina has worked alongside the Cabrillo Economic Development Corp. to develop farm-worker housing in Moorpark and Fillmore.

The Ormond Beach policy that was adopted Monday will call for the restoration of two miles of blighted beachfront land, the preservation of about 131 acres of wetlands and the construction of about 4,100 homes.

Much of the early debate over the General Plan focused on Ormond Beach because it includes some of the last remaining undeveloped beachfront acreage in the county. It also includes sensitive wetlands that for years have coexisted uneasily with nearby heavy industry and agriculture.

The Baldwin Co., an Orange County development firm that owns about 1,000 acres in the Ormond Beach area, proposed three years ago to develop a 3,000-acre project that would have included 10,500 houses, two hotels, two golf courses, two shopping centers and a boardwalk along a marina with 16,000 to 18,000 boat slips.

However, Baldwin scaled down its project after the city heard testimony about safety concerns from the nearby missile-testing center at Point Mugu and environmentalists who support the preservation of the wetlands protested.

On Monday, the council adopted a policy requiring Baldwin to preserve the wetlands, to open public access to the beach and to help buy out an aluminum recycling company that many environmentalists believe is poisoning the waters in the wetlands.

While the Ormond Beach policy was supported by several speakers, including nearby residents, a Chamber of Commerce representative and local surfers, it did not win the support of local environmentalists.

Roma Armbrust, chairwoman of the Ormond Beach Observers, a group dedicated to the preservation of the wetlands, said that before the city adopts an Ormond Beach policy, it should call for a meeting of representatives from the State Coastal Commission, the city staff, local biologists, residents and other interested groups to discuss the needs of the area further.

Armbrust called the beach the “jewel in the crown of Oxnard” and said that “we want everybody heard together to provide a model for the rest of the coastal communities.”