CSU Rejects Taylor Ranch as Campus Site

After three years of community squabbling over whether California State University should build a campus at the Taylor Ranch west of Ventura, university officials on Friday put the site to final rest.

Cal State trustees meeting in Oxnard eliminated the hillside bluff with an ocean view in favor of three less controversial locations: one west of Camarillo, one southeast of Oxnard and one northeast of Ventura.

However, the property northeast of Ventura could prove infeasible because the Ventura City Council has not supported a campus near the city and some residents are opposed, Cal State Vice Chancellor John M. Smart said.

“I think we have at least two sites that are acquirable,” Smart said, referring to property owned by the Duntley Trust and Chaffee family west of Camarillo and property southeast of Oxnard owned by the Donlon family and others.

“But I don’t know about the Ventura site,” he said, adding that it’s not a matter of whether the owners are willing to sell but of whether the city wants a university campus. The Ventura site is owned by several interests, including the Pinkerton family.

The councils in Oxnard and Camarillo have said they would welcome the university to their cities and vowed to help provide services to a new campus. The Ventura City Council has rejected all opportunities to endorse a site near the city.

Trustees may consider a fourth site northwest of Oxnard on 1,100 acres of McGrath family property east of Harbor Boulevard and straddling Gonzales Road. But trustees left it up to an environmental consultant to decide whether there are 200 buildable acres on the property.

Most of the land north of Gonzales Road is in the Santa Clara River flood plain and the portion south of the road is under the flight path of the Oxnard Airport, consultants said. Building on the site could require extensive levee work, building a concrete channel for the river or moving Gonzales Road, consultant Brian Boxer said.

Trustees will decide at their Nov. 27 meeting whether to include the land among the final sites to be studied in-depth in environmental reports.

Consultants will meet with community members again in January to set the scope of the environmental reports. Smart said he hoped that trustees would pick a final site in May or June.

The trustees, who met in Oxnard as a five-member ad hoc committee of the full board of trustees, decided on the four sites after a four-hour morning session held by a 35-member citizens advisory panel.

The panel, which has been meeting for six months to determine which sites would be most acceptable to residents countywide, had recommended that Taylor Ranch be included in the final study, along with the Donlon, Duntley/Chaffee and northeast Ventura properties.

But trustees sent the recommendations back to the committee, citing the Taylor Ranch owners’ refusal to sell their property, community opposition and division on the Ventura City Council. On Friday, no support was left for the Taylor Ranch on the advisory committee, with one lone appeal coming from the audience.

“The only site that is not in an agriculture greenbelt or being actively pursued for agriculture purposes is the Taylor Ranch,” said Ventura Mayor Richard Francis, who spoke as an individual and not as a city representative.

Cal State chose Taylor Ranch in 1986 as its preferred site. The state abandoned that plan in June after the owners said they would not sell, community opposition developed and the Ventura City Council split over whether to welcome the university to the city.

On Friday, in addition to settling on the three final sites and the possible fourth site, the trustees decided to confine the site northeast of Ventura to land south of Foothill Road. Trustees had originally considered property both north and south of Foothill Road at the property called the Saticoy site.

Trustees also decided Friday to exclude from consideration property across from the Ventura Harbor owned by the Lusk Co. and McLaughlin family. That property, which was the university’s first choice before the Taylor Ranch emerged as a possible site, met strong opposition in 1986 and again Friday from homeowners in the Ventura Keys. In addition, the site lacks support from the Ventura City Council.

Trustees were concerned about the Duntley/Chaffee property’s location next to the California Youth Authority west of Camarillo, where young offenders are incarcerated for crimes ranging from burglary to forcible rape and murder. About 12% of the boys and 16% of the girls are serving time at the facility for homicide.

Final Cal State University Sites 1. Saticoy site: 353 acres of farmland south of Foothill Road between Wells and Kimball roads northeast of Ventura. 2. Duntley/ Chaffee property: 589 acres east of Central Avenue and south of Santa Clara Avenue west of Camarillo and next to the California Youth Authority facility. 3. Donlon property: 300 acres south of Wooley Road between Rose and Rice avenues south of Oxnard. 4. (Possible additional site) McGrath property: 1,100 acres straddling Gonzales Road betweenHarbor Boulevard and Victoria Avenue in northwest Oxnard. This site will be considered only if environmental consultants find 200 buildable acres.