Elections ’92 : State Bond Vote Keeps Local CSU Plan Alive : Education: The $900-million measure is approved. But its rejection in Ventura County dismays officials.

Cal State University officials said Wednesday that plans to build a permanent campus in Ventura County survived a crucial test when voters statewide narrowly approved a $900-million bond measure for higher education.

Ventura County residents, however, voted against the measure Tuesday by a slight margin of 50.5% to 49.5%, a message that discouraged Cal State officials who have repeatedly asked for shows of local support for the proposed university.

“It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement,” said Joyce M. Kennedy, director of the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge. “I continue to be dismayed by the message (Ventura County) sends, but I am grateful that the state bailed us out.”

Proposition 153 authorizes the sale of $900 million in bonds for new construction or renovations on the state’s 138 public colleges and universities. It includes $350,000 for planning at the Ventura County campus, which officials hope to build on 320 acres of farmland west of Camarillo.

Cal State officials said last week that if the bond measure failed, they would drop plans to buy property in Ventura County for a permanent campus. They emphasized that their warnings were genuine and not simply an effort to prod county voters into backing the bond issue.

But even with passage of the bond issue, major hurdles remain before the Cal State system goes forward with plans to build the system’s 21st campus in Ventura County, David Leveille, director of institutional relations for the Cal State system, said Wednesday.

“We need water, we need sewer and we need roads . . . and we need to know how much they will charge us for them,” Leveille said.

“We still need a better sense from the local municipalities of their commitment on the infrastructure and providing services,” he added. “We also need to know how bad is the state’s financial condition and where our system stands financially.”

Before the Camarillo site was chosen by Cal State trustees in September, the cities of Oxnard and Camarillo welcomed the university and pledged to work with officials to accommodate a new campus.

To date, however, the cities have committed to nothing in writing. Oxnard and Camarillo leaders have said they need specific requests for services from the university before they can make commitments.

Leveille said he intends to prepare specific requests for the cities this month to make sure that they are clear on the university’s needs.

The university also needs a major flood-control project to alleviate seasonal flooding on the property, which is bordered by Santa Clara and Central avenues to the west and south, and Wright and Beardsley roads to the north and east.

The Ventura County Flood Control District already has tentative approval to build a one-mile concrete channel diagonally across the property, said Arthur E. Goulet, director of public works. The county is now working with the university to try to accelerate funding of the $5-million project from the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, Goulet said.

“There have been very strong commitments from the county,” Leveille said.

Trustees are expected to decide in July whether to acquire the Ventura County site, for which the Legislature has appropriated $7 million. Leveille said the property value is within the allotment. But because one of the two property owners, the Mohseni Ranches, has refused to sell, court condemnation proceedings could increase the cost by $3 million.

State Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), who sponsored the legislation to authorize the acquisition money, said he believed that the Legislature would be willing to fund the cost of condemnation.

Other threats to the Ventura County campus could be the potential development of a new campus on 2,000 acres in Monterey County, where the U.S. Army base at Ft. Ord is scaling back and may have land to give away. The federal government is expected to decide this summer whether to deed the land to the Cal State system.

Monterey County officials have welcomed the university and pledged to support it with necessary services. Voters there, however, also defeated Proposition 153 by a margin of 52.6% to 47.4%.