Port Hueneme Extends Small-Lot Limits : Development: The emergency ordinance affects 34 nonconforming lots in the older section of the city.

The city of Port Hueneme has extended an emergency measure that restricts development on lots that are smaller than standard size.

The action last week would prevent what one city planner called “haphazard development” by property owners who want to sell or build on nonconforming lots. Under the new regulations, adjacent parcels must be merged and then subdivided before being developed or sold.

Thirty-four nonconforming lots in an older section of the port city are affected by the ordinance. Most of the lots are owned by the city redevelopment agency in a 50-acre redevelopment area known as Ventura West. That area is bordered by a Navy base, Ventura Road and Pleasant Valley Road.

But an attorney for Bert Dahl, who is one of the few private landowners affected and who served as Port Hueneme’s first mayor in 1948, said the city’s ordinance targets his client’s property. The attorney, Kenneth Eade of Oxnard, conceded that the 12-family mobile home park is an “unsightly blight on the neighborhood.”

The Dahl property has been subject to city negotiations for years. Municipal plans have included shutting the park, relocating residents and, most recently, cleaning up the site.

Eade said the city wants the mobile home park removed and condominiums built in its place. But if any change is to occur, Eade said, Dahl would prefer to develop the 1.3 acres into single-family lots or to renovate the mobile home park.

The city admits that Dahl’s plans spurred Port Hueneme to take immediate action to “encourage the orderly development” of properties, said Tom Figg, the city’s community development director.

Figg said that 12 nonconforming lots, owned by the Dahl Trust, have been offered for sale. If merged and subdivided into standard-size lots, the Dahl property would become eight lots.

The temporary ordinance approved Wednesday will regulate development for 10 1/2 months. At the same time, the city began hearings on a permanent ordinance. A second hearing will be held Nov. 21. If the council approves it as expected, the measure will be submitted for final approval by the California Coastal Commission.

Neither the temporary ordinance nor the permanent ordinance, would force properties to merge, Figg said. The city acknowledges, however, that it would like to see a planned development instead of individual residences on Dahl’s property, at 128 E. Pleasant Valley Road. The property is zoned for medium density.

“The city has stood in between Mr. Dahl and whatever he wanted to do with the property,” Eade said. “They’re doing this at this time because negotiations for the park’s closure have fallen apart. The motive behind the city is to force Mr. Dahl to be an unwilling developer of this property.”

In letters to the city, Eade said the ordinance constitutes a “taking of private property without compensation.” He said that leaves the city open to an inverse condemnation lawsuit. Figg, though, said the city is just exercising its police powers over zoning and land use to meet its objectives.