PORT HUENEME : Beach Homeowners Protest Tax Proposal

A group of beach-area homeowners in Port Hueneme is mounting a last-ditch challenge to what opponents call the city’s “sneak-a-tax”--a proposed property assessment based on their ocean view and access to the sand.

“If a government can . . . tax something God created, the ocean and the sky, it won’t be long before they tax people’s view of the purple mountains’ majesty and fruited plains,” Leah Bahr, spokeswoman for the Anacapa View Condominium Homeowners Assn., told a gathering of 100 beach-area homeowners Sunday near the Dorrill B. Wright Cultural Center.

“They’re playing it off as rich versus poor, when I waited 50 years to get my ocean view,” said Rivi Massion, 68, a retired teacher from Van Nuys who has a weekend home in the Surfside II condominiums. “When we bought here 17 years ago, there was five feet of filth piled on the beach. It was our property taxes that created this beach for everyone.”

The City Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday night on a proposal unprecedented in California that would impose annual assessments of between $66 and $184 on 1,250 homes and condominiums within two blocks of the beach. The levy would raise $150,000 toward the $425,000 annual cost of beach upkeep, now financed with general tax revenues and beach parking fees.

Under state law, at least 50% of the affected property owners would have to protest in writing or at the public hearing to require a 4-1 vote by the council to approve the assessment district instead of the usual 3-2 vote.

Organizers of the hastily created Hueneme Homeowners Coalition, which has been distributing protest forms to beach-area homeowners, said Sunday that their efforts may fall short because only 25% of the affected units are owner-occupied. The others are rented out or used as weekend getaways by their owners, many of whom live in Los Angeles County and elsewhere in the state.

Mike Roberts, president of the Surfside Village Homeowners Assn., accused the City Council of imposing the “sneak-a-tax” on beach properties because few owners would learn about it in time to protest.

The City Council rejected an alternative plan to impose a $20 annual assessment on property owners citywide to pay for beach maintenance. City officials contend that beach homeowners get the greatest benefit from Hueneme Beach Park and are spared the $4 daily parking fee required of residents who do not live within walking distance of the ocean.