West County Issue Channel Islands Condos

A plan to build condominiums at the county-owned Channel Islands Harbor will bring the county tax dollars and other revenue. Yet the need for affordable low-income housing has never been greater in Oxnard and Ventura County. Is the development of high-priced condos along the shore an appropriate use of county land and resources?

Rodney Fernandez, executive director, Cabrillo Economic Development Corp.

I don’t have any problem with what the county is doing at Channel Islands Harbor. I understand the county’s need to work on their financial base. They’re not getting enough money from the state for health care, for example, and other needs. However, I want to encourage the county to continue to be a primary player in developing policy and resources for affordable housing in the county. The county has been very good at committing the limited resources they have for affordable housing. They’ve been very consistent since 1981 along those lines, and a lot of that support has gone directly to the work we do at CEDC. I’d like to encourage the private and public sector to gather around the table to develop some common policies, programs and resources. It’s our opinion that housing is regional in nature, and we’re trying to develop a long-range vision and sharing of the solutions in a regional context.

Manuel M. Lopez, Oxnard councilman

Channel Islands Harbor is within the city of Oxnard and that proposal has not come before us, so it’s a little premature for me to comment. However, anything built within the city of Oxnard has to be approved by the city and there is a bit of controversy in the sense that the county says they have jurisdiction over the land, not us. The city of Oxnard has a new General Plan, which was just approved. It states that 45% of all new housing within the city of Oxnard has to be affordable. A certain number of units must be built for people of lesser means and that leaves room for the type of development that you’re speaking of. I think the development of low-income housing in that area would be out of the question because the land costs are so high. In general, I would not be opposed to the development if they complied with all our regulations, rules and ordinances. There are a lot of hurdles they would have to go over. For example, can they get an increased water allotment? We cannot share what we have at present for our citizens with them.

John K. Flynn, Ventura County Supervisor

Yes, it is an appropriate use of county land and resources. The people who presently live in the apartments would like to participate in the condo conversions and we have a lessee at the harbor who wants to do it. The harbor land is high-priced land. The county wants to make as much money for its taxpayers as we can from the harbor. I’ve always supported low-cost housing. If we compare Oxnard’s housing prices and low-cost housing to other cities in the county, Oxnard is by far the leader. We’ve always been sensitive to the needs of people who don’t make much money. We need a balance. We want to have a population in Oxnard that attracts business people, educators, people in the sciences and arts, people of all different backgrounds, races and ethnic groups. This development will help balance out the community. Furthermore, some of the proceeds from this project will go into the development of College Park and an amphitheater there. It will provide a beautiful regional facility--a place for people from all over the county, especially Oxnard, to present multicultural events.

Marco Antonio Abarca, staff attorney, California Rural Legal Assistance

In Oxnard in the last 20 years, they have been building almost exclusively middle- and upper-middle-class housing, while they’ve really ignored the housing needs of farm workers and the working class. That result has been that you’re finding more and more poor fighting for fewer and fewer houses. It is not uncommon to see houses in poor sections of Oxnard with 20 to 30 people living in them. In one case, in a three-bedroom house, there is a family living in each bedroom, another family in the garage and an old man in the tool shed. Over the long term, it is dangerous for our society to have this large segment of people getting poorer and poorer as years go by. It is incumbent upon Ventura County to use tax money on people who live and work in this county, rather than on people coming in from other cities. Oxnard is like a Third World city. It reminds me so much of a Latin American city where there is no contact between the rich and poor. We have thousands of farm workers who have never been to the beach, and thousands living near the beach who’ve never been to La Colonia.

Richard Wittenberg, Ventura County chief administrator

The cornerstone of our recreational enterprise fund is Channel Islands Harbor. The county has spent over 25 years developing it. The Channel Islands Harbor is something that helps recreation through all of Ventura County, including the harbor and our parks. This condominium development will be an excellent addition to this beautiful harbor. At the same time, it will enhance county revenue so we can keep our parks open and rehabilitate our harbor. The county of Ventura is doing a great deal about affordable housing through our community development block grant and a multitude of programs. We are, in fact, leaders in this area. At the same time, there is still, of course, a crying need for it, and in a number of areas we are building affordable housing. The harbor is a unique opportunity to garner the well-being of our residents through being able to provide for recreation. Many counties have closed their parks. The reason we have not, and in fact have expanded them, is because of the recreation enterprise fund. And the biggest factor in that fund is clearly the Channel Islands Harbor.