VENTURA : City Will Foot Bill for Dredging Studies

The Ventura City Council voted 6 to 0 to pay for engineering studies on a plan to dredge waterways in the Ventura Keys neighborhood.

After a heated public hearing attended by more than 75 Ventura Keys homeowners, the council approved $238,000 late Monday to pay for the engineering study, soil testing, street sweeping in the neighborhood and other costs related to the dredging.

But council members are fighting attempts by Keys homeowners to have the city pay for the actual dredging of silt from the channel, which will cost an estimated $3 million.

City officials have argued that a special assessment district must be set up to levy fees against the homeowners to pay for maintenance of the channel.

However, the Save the Keys Committee, which represents waterfront homeowners, has said the channel is being polluted by runoff from city streets that run through more than 10 square miles of land outside the neighborhood.

Residents have sued the city in Ventura County Superior Court, seeking damages for diminished property values that they say were caused by the city’s contamination of the Keys waterways.