SANTA CRUZ ISLAND : House Panel to Vote on Land Purchase

A key committee of the U. S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this month on spending $8 million to buy the last privately held part of Santa Cruz Island for the construction of a Channel Islands National Park visitors center.

The National Park Service wants to build a park center on Santa Cruz Island to protect Anacapa Island from being overused, said Mack Shaver, superintendent of Channel Islands National Park. Anacapa, the smallest of the park’s five islands, receives the most visitors because it is closest to shore, about 11 miles from Ventura Harbor.

About 20,000 people visit Anacapa each year. On summer weekends, the number of visitors sometimes reaches the island’s designated capacity of 100 people per day, Shaver said.

In contrast, he said, “Santa Cruz could handle more visitors because it’s a bigger island.” Santa Cruz, which is four to five miles farther from shore than Anacapa, has 62,000 acres compared to Anacapa’s 2,000 acres.

Parks officials hope to begin building a visitors center at the east end of Santa Cruz within five years, Shaver said.

But they first have to purchase the planned construction site, which happens to be the last privately held parcel in Channel Islands National Park, said John Doherty, a spokesman for Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura), who introduced the legislation to buy the property.

The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote on the funding request on Monday.