VENTURA : Council Authorizes Bonds for Dredging

The Ventura City Council has set plans in motion to secure the $2.68 million needed to pay for dredging of waterways in the Ventura Keys neighborhood.

The council voted 6 to 1 late Monday, with Councilman Jim Monahan opposing the motion, to authorize the city to buy $2.68 million in bonds to pay for the dredging.

City taxpayers will pay 25% of the cost, with the remaining 75% of it being paid by the 299 Keys waterfront homeowners in the Porto Bello Maintenance District, at a rate of $1,680 each per year.

The council also decided to table a plan to put a question on the June, 1992, ballot that would allow voters to decide whether the city should bear a larger part of the cost of dredging the Keys residents’ back-yard waterways, which are open to the public.

Keys residents have long insisted that the city should pay for the waterways, arguing that they are public streets and part of the citywide drainage system.

But city officials say Keys developer John Klugh signed an agreement in 1964 establishing the Porto Bello Maintenance District, in exchange for permission to build the Keys in a drainage delta.

That agreement allowed the residents to be assessed for regular dredging of the waterways.

On Sept. 24, the council voted 6 to 1 in favor of re-establishing the Porto Bello Maintenance District but promised to look for outside funding to subsidize the homeowners’ fees.