OXNARD : City, Family Reach Accord on Land

Thanks to a last-minute tentative settlement, the Oxnard City Council has halted efforts to condemn two acres of the Jones Farm in El Rio to use for a water filtration plant.

The proposed agreement, approved by the council Tuesday, ended several months of wrangling between Oxnard and the Jones family, which had already lost 60 acres of its strawberry fields to the United Water Conservation District for use as a settling pond.

Under terms of the settlement, the Jones family would sell the city seven-tenths of an acre of its 198-acre farm. In exchange, the city would drop plans to acquire the full two acres, said Peter Kuetzing, an attorney who handles condemnation cases for Oxnard.

The parcel near the intersection of Central and Rose avenues was sought by the city as the future site of the Del Norte Blending Station and as a right of way for a water pipeline. The city has budgeted $1.3 million for the project.